TBAGM Vol. 2 Chapter 4 Part 2

The next morning.

Ellis and the others had gone back into the dungeon again today. Nero had said when he returned last night that they had ultimately made it to the fifth floor. Today, they apparently planned to push another five floors and challenge the boss room on the tenth floor. Rii and Mii also seemed to have fully gotten hooked on dungeon-clearing, and they had happily headed out since early morning. Their teamwork as a four-person party had been developing smoothly, and that had made me happy too.

And the three members of Mint’s team for the Guild Showdown had also come to “Veiled Moonrise” early in the morning.

They looked fired up, like they could not afford to waste even a single second.

“All right, we’re going to train hard for a full week starting now.”

Seven days remained until the Guild Showdown. We had to do everything we could.

“Come on, Lloyd! Hurry up and start the training!”

“What kind of training should we do?”

“Mana control, right?”

The three of them waited for my instruction with bright, eager expressions. The two executives might have looked into me after yesterday, because I could sense a subtle trust that had not been there before.

“Then we’ll start with individual sessions. Mint, Alterna, could you wait a bit?”

“Okaaay. I’m gonna borrow the targets.”

“Alright then, I’ll use them too.”

Mint and Alterna immediately drew their staves and began firing spells at the targets. Watching them, it was easy to understand how genuinely they loved magic.

“Now then, Marcus. We’ll start with your special training.”

“I’m ready anytime. No matter what kind of training it is, I’ll handle it.”

Marcus spoke with his staff in hand, brimming with confidence. Sensing his motivation, I hung something from the ceiling that I had already had Serina prepare in advance.

“Today, you’re going to do one thing: keep punching this sandbag.”

“…Huh?”

“What’re you spacing out for? Weren’t you here to train?”

I said that to Marcus as he froze in place.

Of course, I understood how he felt, but I had to be a little mean here.

“N-No, wait! Why do I have to punch a sandbag!?”

“To make use of your abilities.”

“Sure, a mage who can fight up close is strong. But we’ve only got a week, right?”

Marcus shook his head hard from side to side, as if to say it was impossible.

But this training would make him grow the most.

Did he remember his own skill?

.

[Skills] Mana Coating

.

Normally, it would display both a current value and a limit value.

But since nothing appeared, it was probably because he had never used the skill. It had not even awakened.

“Do you know your own skill?”

“It’s 【Mana Coating】. It’s basically a worthless dud skill. Training it would be a waste, so I’ve never even used it.”

Once again, I realized just how impressive Marcus was.

Skills could be powerful enough to flip a battle on its head. And yet he had climbed all the way to an executive position without using his, purely on his own fundamentals.

If he understood how to use it, he would get even stronger.

“No, your skill isn’t a dud at all. People say my 【Appraisal】 is way more of a dud skill than anything.”

“My skill isn’t a dud?”

“Yeah. We’re going to develop your skill from here on out. And to do that, we start with the sandbag.”

Marcus still looked unconvinced, but he reluctantly positioned himself in front of it.

Then he put all his strength into his fist and tried to send the sandbag flying.

Puff.

“…Huh?”

In his head, he had probably pictured the impact making the sandbag swing back and forth.

But the sandbag in front of him did not budge at all. Instead, Marcus’s fist turned red.

Marcus and the others were elites when it came to magic. They had a pride to match.

So in order to make him grow along the shortest path—

“Heh… is that all a Greenpeak executive’s got?”

—I just had to snap that inflated pride clean in half.

If it had been anyone other than Marcus, he might have brushed it off with something like, “It’s not magic anyway,” and ignored my words completely.

But yesterday, he had resolved himself. He had decided he would protect “Greenpeak” with his own hands.

“Daaamn youuuuuuu!!”

As if to hide his embarrassment, Marcus punched the sandbag in a frenzy.

Just a moment ago, he had been conscious of my gaze, but now he was focused solely on the sandbag in front of him.

At this rate, Marcus would be fine. He should grow even more than I expected.

“Then work on that for the entire day today.”

After saying that, I headed over to Alterna next.

†

After Lloyd left, Marcus kept punching the sandbag, and an hour had passed.

“Ugh!”

A searing pain shot through his right arm like an electric current.

Marcus cautiously checked his own fist.

(You’ve gotta be kidding me. It’s covered in blood.)

He had thrown hundreds of punches into the sandbag, so the skin was torn to shreds, and the surface of his knuckles had turned a vivid red.

Why had he been working this hard at training he had disliked at first?

Because for the first time in a long while, he could truly feel himself growing.

(Don’t tell me Mr. Lloyd saw this coming?)

.

Hand-to-Hand: E → D

.

Marcus raised his Hand-to-Hand attribute by an entire class in just one hour.

When it went up by a whole class, even he could unmistakably feel the difference.

“More importantly, what am I supposed to do about this fist? Mr. Lloyd told me to keep at it all day…”

The thought of stopping never even crossed Marcus’s mind right now.

The tangible sense of growth was driving him forward.

And the trust he felt toward Lloyd, who had made him remember that feeling, only grew stronger.

(Come to think of it, he said it was to make use of my skill… ahhh! So that’s what it meant!)

Recalling his conversation with Lloyd, Marcus reached a conclusion.

Yes, it was the same vision of Marcus’s growth that Lloyd had been aiming for.

Marcus immediately put that idea into action.

“【Mana Coating】!”

In that instant, the skill stopped being a dud skill to him.

†

“Alterna. You’re up next.”

“Oh, finally my turn. What should I do?”

When I headed over to Alterna, he, like Marcus, wore an expression overflowing with motivation.

“It’s probably going to take another two days before we can start your real training.”

“Do we need something?”

“Yeah. I’ve got one of my members making it right now.”

Almost all of Alterna’s stats had already improved to their limit values.

Unlike Marcus, there was no need to uncover buried ability or talent.

All he needed right now was to discard his fixed idea of how a mage was supposed to fight.

No matter how much you trained your stats and attribute values, if you fought in a way that could not utilize them, you would still lose to opponents you should have been able to beat.

“Until then, I want you to strip away that fixed image of ‘mage.’”

“A fixed image?”

“Yeah. Like what Marcus is doing over there.”

I said that while turning my gaze toward Marcus.

He was still punching the sandbag nonstop.

A man who had done nothing but fire spells until now.

“Huh…?”

The shock must have hit him hard, because Alterna froze with his mouth hanging open.

“W-w-why are you making that guy do hand-to-hand training!?”

“Because he has talent for it.”

“Don’t mess with me! Our guild is mages only!”

Alterna erupted at my words.

Making an executive of “Greenpeak,” an elite gathering of top-tier mages, practice martial arts of all things was the same as trampling Alterna’s pride into the dirt.

But if we did not do it, we could not move forward.

And moving forward required a price.

“That’s exactly the fixed image. What do you even mean when you say ‘mage’?”

“Well, obviously, it’s a profession that fires magic.”

Alterna answered instantly.

It was the very definition of a fixed idea.

“A mage isn’t only someone who fires spells.”

“That may be true. But that’s a fake. A real mage does nothing but fire magic.”

Alterna clearly had a firm conviction, and it did not look like he would change his mind easily.

So I had to say something a little harsher.

“Even if that means losing your comrades?”

“Huh?”

“Your ‘Greenpeak’ is made up only of mages. Having conviction as a mage is a good thing. But if you do that, you’ll always create openings.”

Alterna went slack-jawed at my blunt phrasing.

“You’re an executive. You understand you’re in a position where you have to protect the members, right?”

“Yes. That’s why I train every single day without fail.”

“Let’s say someone used 【Anti-Magic Area】. What would you do then? Our Ellis has a way to break through even in that situation.”

“T-That’s…”

For the first time, Alterna faltered.

There were only a handful of mages in this country who could even use 【Anti-Magic Area】.

He had never imagined a situation like that. And even if it happened, everyone would probably rely on Mint.

“I can see your effort clearly. That’s why I really want you to fight in a way that uses your abilities.”

“M-My abilities…?”

“Yeah. Your Mana Control is outstanding.”

Mana Control was the ability that improved spell formation. It could make spells look cleaner, and it could also accelerate their manifestation.

Because it was a foundational technique, people often said there was no need to train it in particular. But when I looked at his abilities, a certain image of what he could become rose clearly in my mind.

“I want you to become a Shooter. A special Shooter who uses mana bullets.”

“A-A Shooter!?”

“Yeah. The reason I said two days is because I’m having one of my members make a gun dedicated for mana bullets.”

This morning, before the three of them arrived, I went to the two Twinwing guilds.

It was so Nick could make Alterna’s gun. And while I was there, I also gave advice about training the rookies in both guilds.

Nick and Elna apparently planned to properly begin operations in two days as well. Until then, they would be handling paperwork and making the rounds to greet other guilds.

“I’ve only ever heard the word ‘gun.’ I’ve never seen one.”

“Yeah, I’ve only seen one once myself.”

Guns were not widespread in this country. I learned about them because Kyros had once bragged that he got his hands on one.

In this country, possessing a gun was treated as a violation of the law. Imports from other nations were, of course, also cracked down on.

That was why almost no one had ever seen a gun.

“But one of my members can make one. A legal gun.”

I had been drawing up gun blueprints because I wanted to create a weapon that even the powerless could use to stand against monsters.

When Kyros showed his gun off, I had seen it with 【Appraisal】, so I was able to work surprisingly smoothly.

Of course, making a gun that fired live ammunition would be a crime. There was no way we would ever get permission.

So what I came up with was a gun that fired bullets formed from mana: mana bullets.

“So that’s what you meant by ‘mana bullets’?”

“Yeah. Mana bullets aren’t that lethal, and I’ve already received approval for mana bullets from the Adventurer’s Association. After the gun is finished in two days, we’ll get permission from the Adventurer’s Association, the Blacksmiths’ Guild, and the royal family, and secure the rights, more or less.”

“Wha…”

Alterna’s eyes widened. He clearly had not expected me to lay that much groundwork for his sake.

And the words about responsibility must have struck deep, too. The air of “it can only be mage” that he had carried earlier was gone.

“For the next two days, I want you to build up your basic athletic ability. No matter what your profession is, strengthening your body never hurts.”

“U-Understood.”

Alterna nodded despite his confusion.

Watching him, I smiled faintly.

“Since it’s day one, we’ll start simple. One hundred side-to-side jumps for ten sets. After that, a twenty-kilometer run.”

“…Huh?”

“Anyway, I’m going to Mint now, so make sure you do it properly. If you slack off, I’ll know with 【Appraisal】.”

“Yes…”

Leaving that behind, I turned my back on him and headed for Mint.

Alterna was fiercely competitive, and he was a man who held to his convictions.

He would definitely complete today’s assignment.

†

“Hah… hah… hah…”

Even while muttering complaints, Alterna finished the side-to-side jumps and was out running. For someone who had never thought about anything except firing magic, this training was hell itself. His untrained body screamed, and even his mind was being heavily worn down.

But he was still running. For the same reason as Marcus.

(It’s been a while since I felt myself growing like this.)

If he was slow at running, he learned support magic. If the enemy’s defenses were tough, he learned even stronger spells.

Up until now, Alterna had solved every problem with magic. As long as he could use magic, he could do anything. Magic was everything in the world.

But now he understood that he had been completely wrong.

(I’m an executive. I’ve gotta protect the members.)

As he drove his legs forward in a frenzy, Alterna thought:

(I’m gonna get stronger. Strong enough to support Lady Mint and protect this guild.)

That resolve was bigger, harder, and sturdier than any pride he had ever held as a mage.

†