Today marks one week ever since the Spirit Archer Till joined our party. Our party has been progressing extremely well as a three squad this past week. Right now, I am hunting inside the rock mountain dungeon for Rock Golems. Since this dungeon can only be accessed by adventurers up to level 10, I would like to maximize the number of Karakuri Hearts I can obtain, plus the rock golems provide a large amount of experience. My routine for the past week has been to search for any worthwhile quests to complete. If such quests weren"t available, then I would continue to hunt for Karakuri Hearts.
However, today will be the last day I am able to come here. I should be able to obtain level 11 after this hunt. To respect the level limit, I won"t be able to enter this dungeon anymore where the level limit was set to prevent veteran adventurers from entering.
My fist begins to glow red and becomes ablaze.
[Napalm Strike.] (Youya)
I pierced the belly of the golem with my burning palm and burnt it from the inside. The body of the Rock Golem began to turn into blue particles. Finally, the last Rock Golem gave me a Karakuri Heart. With grat.i.tude, I stored the item into my magic bag.
[It"s going to become much tougher from now on.] (Youya)
Ah, I accidentally said my thoughts out loud.
Thanks to Luna who possessed exploration skills, our hunt went without a problem. Although thieves generally didn"t possess much firepower, Luna overturned that general perception by mastering a.s.sa.s.sinate.
And I am the front-line of our party. Magic Knight is a cla.s.s that has the fitness and defensive strength of a front-line cla.s.s. Although, this was possible only due to the hidden room which fixed my status increased every level to the max, allowing me to have the same defensive power as an ordinary warrior. With this status and my ability with a sword, I can become a wall for my party that is equivalent or stronger than any first-tier warrior of the same level. In addition, I possessed Customized Magic which has it"s own strength and overwhelming firepower. My offensive power as a front-liner was much higher as well.
Lastly, our backline which currently consists of Til. She is a Spirit archer who is capable of casting magic while simultaneously providing support with her bow. She was supplementing for a magic caster by providing magic spells, providing firepower equivalent to two people.
With us three each playing an important role, individually we were important parts of our party as we have performed much more than our roles required us to. It is obvious that we were making good progress due to this.
Since the battle is over, Luna and Til began to rendezvous on my position.
[Good job, the both of you.] (Youya)
[Luna worked hard today. I have a.s.sa.s.sined plenty today as well!] (Luna)
Luna expresses her successful a.s.sa.s.sinates with a weird term, however that expression is surprisingly cute. Personally, I like that term. When I stroke Luna"s head, Luna narrows her eyes, showing that it feels pleasant and shakes her tail back and forth. Surprisingly, she worked extremely hard and managed almost a 70% critical rate in this short amount of time. Not to undermine Luna"s hard work, but the thrust is the best attack in landing critical hits and most compatible attack with Luna"s soft and silent high-speed rush.
However, the stronger the monster, the faster their movements, and the harder it is to land a critical hit. It won"t be long before she encounters a monster that she can"t a.s.sa.s.sinate with just the thrust.
Landing a critical hit in any situation with any position. In order to perfect that technique, she will have to master all nine types of slashes. Now that her thrust has become more or less perfect, we should begin to work on her range of slashes.
[Aaa, it"s not fair to praise only Luna. I did my best too! Praise me!! Praise me!] (Til)
Til"s cheeks puffed up as she complained about the situation.
In reality, Til"s progression was far more terrifying than Luna"s. As her level increased, her mana pool increased as well as her mana efficiency. IN addition, her usage of magic along with her bow became much more refined as compared to the battle with the Mad Bear.
However, there are still many weak points present in her battle style. She is first cla.s.s when it came to archery, however the rest of her movements were still amateurish. There is no point in having the strongest offense when you aren"t able to protect yourself. Her position in the part is part of the back line where she"s safe from the main battle. It is ideal for her current state but this provides a risk. There are many cases in dungeons where monsters will sneak up from the back, causing our positions to be reverted and exposing danger to the back line. This is especially dangerous for Til, as she tunnels her entire concentration into firing her arrows, she neglects looking out for her surroundings as she is attacking.
For now, I asked Luna to look out for TIl with Presence Detection and to follow-up in the event that we were ambushed. Although such an incident has yet to happen, we should a.s.sume the worst situation where we would have to protect ourselves. For this, I"ve been thinking about giving Til special lessons about close quarter combat.
[Til did great too. You were our valuable ace when it comes to defeating groups of monsters.] (Youya)
[Eeeh? Just lip service?] (Til)
[I guess I don"t have a choice.] (Youya)
I pat Til"s head. Together with Luna, the two of them narrowed their eyes in pleasure.
The two of them became good friends over the course of this week. The number of capable children has also increased by one. Even though the two of them have strengths, they are also full of faults, they still have a long way to go. Somehow, I feel relieved watching the two of them acting like normal girls around each other. Even though they are special in certain ways, there are still merely children. I"m lucky that these girls are working hard under my guidance .
[It"s about time for us to head back. If we stay here too long, Phil may get worried.] (Youya)
[Uhn.Tonight"s a feast. It was a promise.] (Luna)
[I too remember that if we reached level 11 today, Youya would let us ask for a special order at the bar!] (Til)
[I know that. I plan to uphold that promise.] (Youya)
[Yay! Luna loves Youya!] (Luna)
[Me too!] (Til)
Luna on my right hand and Til on my left. The two of them hugged my hand as we returned back to the guild. Well I"m also looking forward to eating something good tonight as well. Besides, my food always taste better when eating with these two.
Although, because of how clingy these two girls are, my reputation in the guild has dropped drastically. I"ve even been given names such as lolicon or loli knight. Rumors have also spread that I am only successful as a magic knight because i"ve managed to attract talented girls into my party. I have to take action soon to prevent the situation from worsening. I am definitely not a paedophile.
When we arrived at the guild, we headed straight towards the reception to turn in our quest, earning us a bunch of guild points and cash.Obviously, the receptionist was Phil. Phil is popular among the adventurers and thus often has a queue in front of her. However the guild is similar to a private organization where anything can be done with money. It is possible to have an appointment with a receptionist by paying an additional fee. It is thanks to this appointment system that I can consult Phil directly without waiting in the queue.
By the way, Phil herself paid the appointment fee to the guild. Since majority of the fee is given to the receptionist as a bonus, majority of the fee would return to her. She requested to do so as she wanted to "keep track of her sister"s movements as well as to help her out when needed". After listening to her reason, I had no choice but to concede to her. Out of curiosity, when I inquired another female receptionist about Phil"s popularity, it seems that her abundant knowledge and experience, apparent strength and appearance were the reasons that she was popular. Her reservation slots were also completely filled. It seems that she had some control over the list seeing as she could fit us into her packed schedule.
The surrounding adventurers were making an envious face as Phil smiled while looking directly at me and shook my hand. Somehow it feels like Phil is oblivious to how popular she actually is in the guild. I sat in front of her as I report the status of the party.
[Youya, even if it"s you leading the party, isn"t your pace a little bit too quick? Just after a week and everyone is over level 10. I"ve been a receptionist for a while but this is the first time I"ve seen this.] (Phil)
Phil squinted her eyes as she looked at me carefully.
[It"s not anything special isn"t it? It"ll be like this if we completed the quests you recommended to us as well as hunt Rock Golems daily in the dungeon.] (Youya)
[It"s the fact that you can even beat the golem that is strange.] (Phil)
Phil is definitely an excellent receptionist. Although I report our party"s levels every night when I deliver the quest doc.u.ment and materials, the next morning she would have prepared and introduce a delicious quest to us for that day. The quests would often be difficult enough for us to clear while providing excellent rewards. They played a huge part in our speed although the Rock Golem did provide a lot of experience.
Since beginners can"t defeat dungeon exclusive monsters, the only ones hunting the Rock Golems were us. It is possible to match our pace if you have Phil"s introductions while hunting other monsters in the dungeon, however there would be compet.i.tion as everyone else would be hunting those monsters as well. Whereas we could freely hunt the golems without waiting for the monsters to resp.a.w.n every week. Their individual experience values were high and rare items could also be dropped. Thanks to that, everyone was able to achieve level 11 in just one week.
[Heres the material for the quest and these are the items that I would like to cash out please.] (Youya)
[This much!!? Aren"t you earning as much as an intermediate adventurer?] (Phil)
[Well yeah. If it"s after their resp.a.w.n, in a beginner dungeon with fewer compet.i.tion, it"s possible] (Youya)
With their sp.a.w.n rate fixed weekly, the monsters and treasures resp.a.w.n and the geography of the dungeon changes. Although the risk is higher, it is the most efficient day to go into the dungeon. That"s why we entered the dungeon earlier today and hunted from the early mornings. Thanks to that we were more exhausted than expected, but we got a level higher than our goal.
[You are definitely doing something! Even if Til has the firepower of two people, even if Luna"s increased power from a.s.sa.s.sinate, it shouldn"t be THIS fast! It still doesn"t add up!] (Phil)
As expected of a professional receptionist. Just by looking at our party composition, she could estimate how much we can achieve with our capabilities.
[You"re a former adventurer aren"t you. Us adventurers have things that we must not reveal carelessly.] (Youya)
[You"re right. I won"t ask any more. But about tomorrow"s dungeon and quest..] (Phil)
[It"s alright. The dungeon tomorrow has already been decided.] (Youya)
Thinking back, we are finally level 11. Thanks to this, we can"t enter the mountain dungeon anymore. With items from my peak and other special bonuses, there are a bunch of methods available to us that is impossible for others.
[I have a bad feeling about this. Where do you plan to go tomorrow?] (Phil)
[The seafloor dungeon.] (Youya)
Phil gasped.
Well that is to be expected. The seafloor dungeon isn"t a dungeon meant for beginners in the first place. That dungeon has a recommended level 25, it isn"t a place for chicks at level 11 to enter. Far from making a mistake, it"s a place where even making half a step incorrectly would be dangerous.
[That"s suicidal!] (Phil)
[Don"t worry about it. If I was alone, that"ll be true. But I"m not alone this time. I have friends entering with me. If there are others, I have a plan.] (Youya)
Our hunting so far has been within the realm of common sense, even if it"s pushing the limit. However, now that we"re level 11, we will finally begin hunts that are extraordinary. If I were to stick to conventional hunts, I would die of old age before I even reach level 50. Phil puffed up her cheeks while looking at me, before letting out a sigh.
[I"m guessing that is also a secret.] (Phil)
[Yeah.] (Youya)
[Sigh. Fine. I believe that Youya wouldn"t put Luna and Til in any danger, but just in case, please keep this with you.] (Phil)
Phil took out three blue jewels from her pocket.
[Those are Return Stones aren"t they? I can"t receive such expensive things.] (Youya)
[It"s my feelings as an older sister thinking about her younger sister. Don"t worry about the money, they are items that I obtained back when I was still adventuring.] (Phil)
Return Stones are items that can be used to escape from a dungeon instantly, regardless of the situation. It is impossible to create this stones, as they are items that can only be obtained from chests in the dungeon. For adventurers, this was akin to a lifeline that everyone wanted, causing the price of the stone to rise.
[Then I"ll humbly receive them. I"ll try my best so that we will never need to use them.] (Youya)
[Well they are only used when you are in the worst of the worst situation.] (Phil)
[Of course.] (Youya)
Phil looks at me and laughs. With this, the conversation ends. Phil hands over the quest reward and drop item fee and I leave the guild.
Now then, I can"t leave two kids starving and waiting for too long. Tonight"s superstar menu will be a gigantic roasted pig foot. Those two will definitely enjoy tonight"s meal.
The next morning, we entered the seafloor dungeon.
[Youya. Looks weird.] (Luna)
[You are not wearing your usual leather armour today?] (Til)
[Well.] (Youya)
I equipped a different set of equipment from my usual equipment this time around. I wore a robe instead of my usual leather armour, and a cane with a jewel at the top instead of a sword at my waist.
[I just felt like wearing this today.] (Youya)
We came here to do some a unique hunt not within the realm of common sense in this world utilizing my Magic Customization. My customized spells doesn"t consist of only Napalm Strike and in this dungeon, there are other magics that can truly shine because of the dungeon. We will kill monsters with levels that far surpa.s.s our own to raise our levels as quickly as possible. It is also possible for us to go the standard route and raise it slowly, but this method is far more desirable than that.
Now let"s get hyped up. From here on we are shifting into full gears. To be the fastest to reach level 50 in this world.