Chapter 34: Chapter 32: Practice part.1

With our vocations done being introduced, for the time, we decided to head back to the Fairy Square.

“Maaan, beating Skeletons without even a weapon, Futaba-san’s like, super strong? No wait, you have some uber Skills right?”

It sounds like a bout of pure-hearted curiosity from Hirano-kun, but we need to be careful responding.

Just before, we didn’t expressly reveal out Skill set. But pertaining our techniques and magic, we need to let them know what we can do.

“Actually, Futaba-san also doesn’t know anything other than the Warrior’s three Novice Skills”

I signal Futaba-san with a glance, but well, don’t know if she got it, but anyway, leave this one to me, I endeavour to explain in her place.

“Eh, you for real?”

“There’s one called Blessed Body which I think increases her power”

“Hmm, Blessed Body huh”[1]

Obviously, I’m lying. But since we’re going so far as hiding the Berserker part, we can’t reveal Berserk Body either. Well, it’s a fact that we still don’t know if that one is the one granting power to Futaba-san.

“And the other are Foresight and Repel”

“Repel? You mean she knocks away attacks?”

“Yeah, something like that. With the right angle, the enemy can stagger and fall, and it can also work as a counter”

It could overturn even that Great Frog, so it should blow away any small-tier Monsters. If it’s the Red Dog Boss, it should work, depending on its size.

“But man, with that Blessed Body thing, she can keep powered up all the time right? Isn’t that like, too good? Like, it’s a Rare Skill right?”

“Hirano-kun’s not stronger or faster without using Skills?”

“Yeah, none of that happens unless I’m using a Battle Art”

I see, that’s why this always active Passive Skill must look convenient.

“But look, Futaba-san doesn’t have any attack moves, so there’s no real trump card there. If we’re talking about damage, your Break looks much better.”

“Looks like it has its demerits too”

The current Futaba-san is reliable, but depending too much on one thing is never good.

“By the way, It’s just my guess but Momokawa-kun’s Shaman, it doesn’t have any Attack Magic does it?”

Urk, so she went for that… I mean, of course she would. Even I think I should be honest here, otherwise we won’t make any progress.

“Yeah, my Shaman can’t do any attacks. Frankly speaking, it’s pretty weak”

“Uoh, damn dude”

Hirano-kun says in plain-to-see dejection. She didn’t comment, but Nishiyama-san also has a difficult look.

“My Blackhair Bind that can restrain the enemy is the most useful one right now”

“Anything else?”

“The next most useful would be Intuition Pharmacy. I can make medications with it”

“Ooh, we finally got a Healing Skill!”

“But there’s the bottleneck of materials, and as far as I’ve seen, this area doesn’t have a single herb, so you can’t count on it much”[2]

“Hmm, how effective is it?”

“That I can guarantee. After all, Futaba-san once got a fatal wound, and my treatment worked wonders”

“For real, that’s great bro! We only had that 4-leafer for recovery, it was pretty bad man”

“Yeah, with this, if we fight the Boss and get a bit injured, it should be alright”

From their reactions, that 4-leafed clover herb introduced by the Note Circle is hard to find a lot of. At a glance, those planters in the Fairy Garden didn’t have any either.

It was the same with the Class Rep team, they’re having a hard time with recovery measures. On the flip-side, because of that, a Shaman like me can come into play.

“I also have Red Fever that induces a slight fever, and a flimsy Vile Mud Doll among the rest.”

“Eh, slight fever? What do you mean?”

“Please don’t ask”

Yeaah, these few Curses won’t help at all in our efforts, so please spare me the questions. More like, please just forget about them.

“Finally, there’s a Curse called Pain Return, this one, it returns damage to me back to the attacker, so careful not to misfire alright”

Otherwise said, don’t backstab me, y’hear. My attack power may be zero, but I’ll take out my killer 100% of the time, in a way, it’s the ultimate insurance.

It’s mostly useless on enemies that gang up like Goma, but it’s great against human allies. Anyone would give preference to their own life. Also, most people aren’t likely to use slave-like underlings like Higuchi. Well, even a dumbass like Masaru won’t make the stab if he knows he’ll die.

“I-Is that right. That one really is curse-like”

“Long as there’s no attack, it won’t hurt a fly”

Nishiyama-san backed away a little, so I added the comment. Plainly taking distance like that, in and of itself, kinda hurts.

“Anyway, with this team, we can pretty much take care of the Boss right?”

“Stop right there, don’t tell me you’re planning to go there now right? We need to plan this out and… look, you don’t want what happened with Itou-kun happening again right?”

“Yeah, I get that”

From their conversation, it seems their first time challenging that Boss was a mostly no-plan charge. They did say something about getting in over their heads.

“So for now, should we have a battle conference?”

“But like, so first, Momokawa can be on restraining, and the rest is me and Futaba-san hack-and-slashing away at the Boss, with support from Nishiyama. Then, with luck, we cut the legs to stop it moving, and finish with Blast right?”

Hirano-kun’s plan is full of holes, but considering each of our vocations, there isn’t really any other arrangement.

“So what kind of attacks does the Boss do? We need to think of countermeasures too”

“Dude, it’s just a big dog”

“By big dog, he means around the size of a lion you can find in a zoo. Seeing it up close, there’s a good bit of pressure”

Lion-size meaning, it’s at least smaller than that memorable first encounter of mine, the Armor Bear… But, that doesn’t make it any less daunting. A Red Dog big enough to surpass large dog breeds, it’s damn scary.

“Ah right, it gets worse, the thing breathes fire man”

“Eh, seriously? Around how much?”

“Pretty big, like them fountain fireworks.”[3]

“No wait you, it was clearly bigger than some fireworks remember?”

“That, please elaborate”

“Hmm, let’s see—”

According to Nishiyama-san, though it’s not like a full blown flamethrower, the Boss still lets out intense flames. When there’s sparks emitted from its clattering fangs, the next moment, flames gush out with great momentum.

Is it shooting fire with magic, or maybe letting out flammable gas and then igniting that, at this point, it doesn’t matter.

“Isn’t it pretty dangerous for Hirano-kun and Futaba-san who’re supposed to get close?“

“Yeah but, were Swordsman and Warrior, so there’s no choice right? We’ll be looking out for the sparks”

Vigilance with focus on evasion. Saying so is great and all, but is that alright? In a game, the Monsters only move according to the AI they’re programmed with. Especially before big attacks, they’ll do some pre-set behaviour. That’s how the player deals with it. If they can’t, they can continue over and over again, so even an idiot can do it eventually.

“Anyway, maybe you could douse yourself with water before. Also, my meds can probably handle burns… but if it’s too severe, you might be out of luck”

“Got’cha, I’ll make sure to dodge”

There’s not a lot of pre-work we can do. In the end, we’re mostly relying on our Player Skills.

“Did we miss anything?”

“Hmm, not really, no. That thing moves like it looks, just like a dog. You know, those police dogs chasing after criminals, you’ve seen those on TV right? It’s like that, really fast-paced and all”

“Honestly, that there’s the scariest thing. I can barely run away with Quick Step, and Nishiyama’s far away too. But Itou… it was bad. He was knocked down once, and turned into a bloody mess”

“Eh, you mean, instant death?”

“Nah, he was alive. And, I tried closing in to save him, but by then, it was gonna blow fire, and Itou was in the way, so we couldn’t use Attack Magic either”

“And in the end, we couldn’t do a thing… and just ran away”

Under those circumstances, plus due to negligence, they lost a comrade and returned utterly defeated. But them making it back without major injury can be considered more than lucky.

“Hmm… So, that happened…”

The thought comes to mind, maybe Itou-kun was betrayed by these two. However, from their talking about how helpful a Thief is in dungeon capture, he shouldn’t have been someone you can so easily cut away.

As for that Boss battle, I should just look at it like they just lacked the power.

“So, what do you think? After a break, wanna head to the Boss?”

“No, Me and Futaba-san want to practice a bit more with Skeletons, so can you guys wait some?”

“There’s no problem with that, but will you two be alright alone?”

“If there’s only Skeletons, we’ll be fine. So, let’s go Futaba-san”

Saying that half-forcefully, I stand up.

Actually, practice isn’t the main reason. The prime objective is, yes, I have things I need to talk about with Futaba-san, alone.

“… Futaba-san, you’re pretty cautious of them huh?”

Making sure there aren’t any Skeletons inside, we pick and enter a random room, and I say that to break the ice.

“Yeah, I think it’s too dangerous to trust other people just yet”

Even the kind-hearted Futaba-san, with all her cruel experiences to date, spoke words of suspicion towards the two without stammer.

“I think so too. That’s why I lied”

I have no regrets. I was anxious whether they’d see through it though.

In all likelihood, they could be lying too. Like actually, Nishiyama-san can shoot Aer Sagitta chantless. Or like Hirano-kun has other Battle Arts too.

If it’s secrets, we all have some.

“By lying, you mean about me?”

“I’m glad you stayed quiet. Kinda thought you’d suddenly go Actually, I’m a Berserker or something”

“N-No I wouldn’t! I can at least read the mood okay!”

That’s why she stayed out of most of the conversation I bet. We hadn’t considered this situation, and it’d be hard to match our stories. Throwing all the explaining business to me was the right choice for Futaba-san.

We should’ve have thought about the possibility of sudden encounters like this and decided on a code of action, that’s my only small regret. I’m reflecting on it.

“But I never thought there’d suddenly be classmates at the jump destination”

“We’ll need to be careful next time. Or they could suddenly come attacking”

Futaba-san’s vigilance is churning full-throttle. But this level of caution is just right.

“I think you know, but we’ll be working together with them for now”

“… Are you sure?“

“You’ve seen their power. They’ve got better vocations than me at least”

“That’s not true!”

My slight self-derision replied with such a strong denial, I get a bit surprised. You don’t need to deny it so hard.

“Ah, s-sorry”

“No, it’s fine, I appreciate the pat on the back”

Well, I guess it’s true that I saved her life once. I’m glad I was a Shaman instead of some half-baked fighter type, is something say only for that occasion.

“Anyway, those two can at least listen to reason, and making more allies should make it safer in the long run I guess”

“That’s, well true… but after beating the Boss, they’ll still be with us, right…?”

“Eh, is that a problem?”

On the contrary, after the Boss, if we go, Welp, see ya, it’s even more awkward.

“Not that… but, you don’t know, when they’ll betray. Like in my case”

“Ah, y-yeah, you’re right”

In my case, it was the matter of Higuchi one-sidedly attacking me, so I have my guard up against that, but getting abandoned when the going gets tough, that kind of pattern isn’t something fully engraved in me. I get it technically, but for Futaba-san who’s actually gone through that kind of betrayal, it’s natural she won’t be able to trust someone just because they’re a bit friendly.

“If possible, I’d like to avoid getting into big trouble though. Anyone will try and save their own skin. They could last-minute betray an ally… But on the contrary, if we have smooth progress, there’s no reason for that to happen. What we need is, rather than a relation of trust, we need enough power to secure safety.”

“So you mean, from now on, we should try to ally with as many classmates as we can right?”

“Yeah, but not Higuchi though. I’ll Curse those guys to hell!”

Fufun, I laugh half joking, half serious.

“Yep, you can do it Momokawa-kun”

But if you give me a gentle, full smile agreement to that, I get a feeling much complicated. More so, since Futaba-san has a more, pacifist-like image to her.

“Anyway, we gotta take down that Boss before any of that”

“Emm, so we’ll, practice?”

“Yes. I needed to talk properly with Futaba-san, but the part about wanting to practice is also true”

The Skeleton is truly a convenient practice partner. Before entering this area, what Monster, at what timing, how many, we didn’t know a thing. It was all a per-encounter basis, so the best we could do, was avoiding fights we could avoid.

But here, we can fight Skeletons in peace. Open space, known enemy, low numbers. It could be that, after leaving here, we’ll never get to such a beginner friendly area.

“I want to see if I can get a little more out of Blackhair and Mud Doll. Futaba-san too, isn’t it better if you get more confidence in your Repel and Foresight?”

“Yeah, that’s true Momokawa-kun. I’ll, try them out!”

Thus, our leveling began. [4]

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[1] It is here that we get the pronunciation of Blessed Body ~! It’s Keitai. Incidentally, this also means phone if written differently.

[2] I guess he means the area outside the Fairy Square.

[3] Here’s a Video. It actually says Dragon Fireworks but in English it’s fountain I guess…

[4] I was thiiis close to writing grinding instead of leveling…