TBAGM Vol. 1 Chapter 2 Part 2
Ellis and I arrived at the training grounds of the Adventurer’s Association.
It was much larger than the one at her house, and multiple layers of defensive barriers had been deployed. No matter how wildly Ellis let loose, with this much protection, her 【Water Ball】 shouldn’t be able to punch through the walls—or so I hoped.
Orgus, who had arrived ahead of us, was diligently setting up targets of various sizes, likely to assess Ellis’s abilities.
“Good morning, Orgus. I brought her.”
“Good morning, Mr. Orgus!”
“Ah, good morning. Just give me a moment, I’m nearly done with setup.”
Once he noticed us, Orgus hurried to finish placing the target dummies. When he was done, he jogged over to us.
“Phew… well then, let’s see what she’s capable of.”
“Will the outcome of this affect anything going forward?”
Ellis asked anxiously. After all, the man standing before her was the Chairman. If he could authorize the creation of our guild, he could just as easily dissolve it. No wonder she was tense.
“Don’t worry. This is purely for my own interest. Just relax and show me what you’ve got.”
“Y-Yes, understood!”
Hearing Orgus’s reassuring words, Ellis’s taut expression finally softened a little. She took a deep breath and moved into position.
As I kept my gaze fixed on her, I turned and offered Orgus a warning.
“Orgus. When I saw Ellis’s magic for the first time, my jaw nearly dislocated. Just keep that in mind.”
“It’s rare for you to joke, Mr. Lloyd. Her Appraisal didn’t show anything that remarkable.”
“Orgus, there are things in this world even we Appraisal users can’t see.”
Yeah, yeah… I felt like I was lecturing my past self. That abnormality of hers couldn’t be understood unless witnessed firsthand. Even then, most people would still doubt their own eyes.
“Orgus. Magic requires chanting, right?”
“Of course.”
“And modifying its size or power was impossible, right?”
“Only a god could pull that off. Unless you’ve got three hundred brains, maybe.”
“And it’s impossible for a beginner spell to destroy a wall, right?”
“Obviously… wait, what is this? What kind of questions are these?”
Orgus frowned at the painfully obvious questions I posed. Any sane person would give the same answers he just did.
And yet, Ellis had overturned all of them.
“Just watch. Try not to dislocate anything.”
“I… see…”
My dead-serious tone left Orgus with no room to object. He turned his gaze toward Ellis with some hesitation.
She gripped the staff at her hip and began to focus.
Staffs were typically used to assist spellcasting and amplify effects.
But with her chantless casting and raw output… did she really need one?
“Ellis! Let’s see just one shot!”
“Understood! Should I aim for that dummy?”
“Yeah! Just focus on hitting it!”
The last time she’d shown me her 【Water Ball】, the target had been obliterated—splintered to pieces.
If her spell landed, nothing could survive it.
“What kind of magic is she using? Wait—don’t tell me she’s aiming for that one? That’s our hardest dummy!”
“【Water Ball】.”
“Cough! Cough! That’s a beginner spell, isn’t it?!”
Orgus was so shocked he started coughing.
In ordinary terms, 【Water Ball】 was the kind of spell a child would use for practice.
“I mean, it’s the only spell Ellis can use.”
“W-What?! Are you sure this is safe?!”
“Relax. The real surprise hasn’t started yet.”
Apparently, Orgus hadn’t seen that Ellis’s Magic stat was listed as S.
To him, it probably looked like a standard D-rank value.
“What kind of magic tool is she using?”
“None. If she ever wielded one, it’d be the end of the world.”
“Then it won’t even reach the target! That’s over sixty meters away! And that dummy’s made from orichalcum—you need to be an A-rank adventurer or stronger just to scratch it!”
“Man, listening to you feels like watching my old self from a week ago.”
“D-Did you just pity me?!”
Orgus was just repeating common sense.
Under normal circumstances, everything he said was true. 【Water Ball】 had a range of about twenty meters, far short of the sixty-meter distance. And that dummy, made from orichalcum, was so durable that even upper-tier spells barely left a mark.
It had survived decades without issue.
No wonder Orgus thought I was crazy.
Then, Ellis activated her 【Water Ball】.
“Heave-ho!”
With a cute shout, a tiny orb of water materialized in front of her.
It was several times smaller than a standard 【Water Ball】.
“Take this!”
Without even launching, it vanished with a crisp snap.
Seeing the spectacle, Orgus gave us a look of utter disappointment.
Trying to spare our feelings, he muttered in a low voice:
“Ran out of mana… from a beginner spell? No, maybe because there was no chant? But still… Mr. Lloyd, lying to me? There has to be some reason—”
I called out to Orgus, who had begun to brood alone.
“Hey, Orgus!”
“It’s fine. I’m not upset. I know you must’ve had your reasons, Mr. Lloyd—”
“What are you talking about? Just take a good look at the dummy.”
I tapped Orgus lightly on the shoulder as he misunderstood the situation.
Of course, Ellis’s 【Water Ball】 hadn’t just vanished. I only noticed what happened because I was already aware of how abnormal she was. Otherwise, I’d have reacted just like Orgus.
“I don’t see anything strange. What are you trying to say?”
“Try touching the dummy.”
Doing as I suggested, Orgus stepped up to the orichalcum dummy and placed a hand on it.
And the moment he did—
“Huh? It broke? Was it… deterioration?”
The orichalcum dummy crumbled into pieces, collapsing into the dirt.
Deterioration? That would be impossible for orichalcum.
The only plausible cause was Ellis’s 【Water Ball】.
“How was that, Mr. Orgus? I maxed out the speed and aimed right for the core!”
Ellis flashed a satisfied smile, clearly confident in her performance.
The advice I’d given her had been about control.
Of course, I hadn’t said it on a whim. I genuinely believed she could grow even stronger if she learned to control her power.
But this? Maxed out speed? What the hell was she talking about?
She made it smaller to boost its speed and precisely destroy the dummy’s core. The reason it looked like the 【Water Ball】 had disappeared was because it was too fast to follow.
That should have been the answer, but I still couldn’t wrap my head around it. Was it me who didn’t make sense?
“Wha—Wha—WHAAAAAAAT!?”
Orgus’s shout echoed throughout the training ground.
Unlike me, who had vaguely anticipated this outcome, everything had come as a complete shock to him.
The fact that the dummy had crumbled so cleanly meant she had destroyed the core in one strike.
“Ah…”
Staring at the debris, Orgus opened his mouth to speak but couldn’t find the words.
It seemed my earlier concern had come true.
Orgus looked at me, flustered.
“Uh-oh. My jaw… it’s dislocated.”
“Haha! Told you, didn’t I?”
I doubled over laughing at the sight of Orgus holding his jaw in his hands.
He popped it back into place with a series of sharp cracks. Who knew he could fix it himself? I’d have to ask him to teach me how next time.
Holding his sore jaw, Orgus gave me a narrow-eyed stare.
“M-Mr. Lloyd, you really do raise some extraordinary talent.”
“Even I was stunned. With that kind of potential, she might just reach S-rank someday.”
I asked Ellis to show us all the techniques she could use at the moment.
She proceeded to unleash a series of 【Water Ball】 spells; each one different in form, weight, and function. With every shot, the targets were obliterated without a trace.
Magic wasn’t supposed to be something you could shape and scale like this. At this point, it was more accurate to say she was rewriting the spell.
“What advice did you give her?”
“I just said, ‘Why not master what you love?’”
“And that’s all it took?”
“She told me she trained every single day for three years. Apparently, that’s what it looks like to reach perfection.”
I couldn’t say anything definitive. I didn’t even want to try.
Let’s say I put in three years training 【Water Ball】.
Would I be able to reach Ellis’s level?
If someone asked me that, I’d shake my head without hesitation.
“She should probably be kept off the radar. That’s why you brought her here, right? To show me?”
“I appreciate how fast you catch on. I don’t want her abilities made public.”
“I figured. If Veiled Moonrise gets targeted by another guild, it’ll be over in an instant.”
Veiled Moonrise was still brand-new. If Ellis’s strength became public knowledge now, other guilds would swarm us in an attempt to snatch her away.
“I’ll just say she’s a perfectly normal D-rank adventurer.”
“Thanks. You’ve really helped me out—again.”
“Not at all. Honestly, I just want to stack up a few favors before the Adventurer’s Association gets flattened.”
Orgus laughed, trying to play it off like a joke.
But I gave him a look of sympathy.
Because there wasn’t a single shred of a joke in what he just said.
“But, you know… it might already be too late.”
“Too late? What do you—”
Orgus tilted his head, confused.
Before he could finish, a massive explosion shook the training ground.
“Ah.”
“S-Sorry! I messed up the output a little!”
Ellis bowed deeply toward Orgus, her face pale with panic.
Behind her, a gaping hole had been blown through the wall, giving us a perfect view of the residential neighborhood beyond.
“I-I’m o-o-okay…”
Orgus’s mouth opened and closed like a fish as he forced the words out.
I later learned that this training ground had stood for over a century.
It had endured more than a hundred years without ever needing repairs; a fortress of durability.
Now? It had a hole in it.
All I could offer Orgus—who would have to bear the responsibility—was my condolence.
Rest in peace, Orgus.
†
