The Gnome — whose artificial body looked like a girl around Hannah’s age — was standing by Tsutomu’s side as if to guard him. After just five minutes of looking around vigilantly, though, it opened its mouth as if begging for a piece of candy… which, considering it was a Spirit, actually meant a Magic Stone.
[This isn’t helpful at all…]
Tsutomu stared coldly at the Gnome as it kept its mouth open and stared at him with its baby-doll eyes as if that would induce his protective instinct. Tsutomu proceeded to glance sideways at Leleia, and saw that she was clearly avoiding eye contact.
Despite the Gnome starting to look discouraged due to not being fed a Magic stone, the look in Tsutomu’s eyes remained as cold as ever. Hannah, unable to see this go on, flapped her wings angrily and flew toward Tsutomu.
“Teach! You’re making it sad again!”
“But all it’s been doing is loiter around! Is it even good for anything?”
“It’s cute!”
“I don’t need anything to be cute! Besides, this isn’t even the main body — this little thing is!”
Tsutomu pointed at the statuette on the earth girl’s shoulder. Indeed, the larger body was nothing but artificial — the Gnome was actually the terracotta statuette with an unnerving face.
“The other Spirits are helpful, so it’s worth feeding them Magic Stones… But the Gnome hasn’t done anything to earn one from me. That’s all there is to it.”
“I’m sure the Gnome can do something too! It’s too early to tell!”
“……”
“Look! It just nodded!”
For some reason, Hannah’s reaction to the Gnome’s nod was quite exaggerated. Tsutomu turned to the Gnome again, and this time, it shut its eyes as if to focus its energy.
“……”
Then the Gnome’s artificial body’s chest area became bigger — to about Hannah’s size, though it was somewhat hard to notice due to its multi-layered dress and all the accessories.
“……”
“Ooh! It made them as soft as the real thing, too!”
“This isn’t what it should be focusing on…”
The Gnome seemed particularly proud of its new chest as it was being touched by Hannah. The terracotta statuette on its shoulder also looked somewhat pleased. Tsutomu, looking at the two very similar girls, then let out a sigh of resignation. He reached into his Magic Bag and took out a Small Colorless Magic Stone.
“Look, I’ll ask Leleia about the Gnome sometime later. THEN I’ll think of some way you can be useful.”
“…!”
Happy to receive a Small Magic Stone from Tsutomu at last, the Gnome nodded repeatedly.
“So just take that and go home for today, all right?”
“…♪”
The Gnome took a bite of the Small Magic Stone it had received and waved goodbye with a smile. Then both the statuette and the artificial girl crumbled into the earth and disappeared.
Then, after confirming with Leleia that the <<Contract>> had indeed been disengaged, he lethargically looked up at the sky.
“Now, to never form a <<Contract>> with it again…”
“…TEACH~~?”
“Just kidding. But really, I have no idea how to make this setup work, you know?”
“You can just switch to being a non-evasion-based Tank, Teach!”
“And get myself killed? No thanks.”
A White Mage was sure to die as a full-time Tank due to their VIT being even lower than that of a Boxer. Moreover, the Spirits’ magic could not be used much either due to it consuming Leleia’s mental energy.
“Look, enough talking about Gnome. Time to get back to training.”
“I’ve had enough~~! I don’t wanna see snow ever again~~!”
“Stop whining. You used to be with Ealdred Crow — surely it was way worse than this.”
“Well, I mean, sure… But the work environment over there meant I couldn’t really complain at all, you know…”
While in combat, Absolute Helix’s performance was as good as Ealdred Crow’s best, but they required regular break times. In addition, they would normally return to the Guild at noon to go out for lunch in town, and in the afternoon, they would wait to start exploring when the areas around the Monitors were starting to get crowded.
Those of Ealdred Crow, on the other hand, could opt to stay in the Dungeon to train all day, eating only rations in most cases. And they would spend their time in the Dungeon fighting almost constantly, with only occasional five-minute breaks.
Moreover, that was not even their Clan’s official policy — the Explorers usually chose to do that themselves, which one could consider one of Ealdred Crow’s standout strengths. The higher up the rank a member was, the better they were treated, so the Explorers were extremely motivated, and the turnover rate was so high that one did not have the time to stop and complain.
“Oh yeah? How about we follow Ealdred Crow’s example, then?”
“Teach. Don’t even think about it,” Hannah said, her voice shaky. “See how scary the look in Diniel’s eyes has become?”
Diniel, having been listening carefully to the conversation, now looked as if she was out on a hunt with her eyes completely focused on the prey.
“I wouldn’t particularly mind that,” Leleia said. “A little more discipline should do us some good.”
“Leleia! Don’t say anything unnecessary if you know what’s good for you! Diniel would kill a girl if it means she gets more days off!”
“You talk too much.”
“OWOWOW! S-SEE!? THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU OPPOSE HER!!” Hannah screamed as Diniel clutched her head in a wrestling claw hold.
Leleia looked on, feeling awkward. Garm, seeming to have gotten used to Hannah’s schtick by now, did not step in to stop what an outsider would perceive as excessive violence.
―▽▽―
“<<Haste>>. <<Barrier>>.”
Today was yet another day of Golden Tune’s training on layer seventy-nine, and also another day of Eunice — their Healer — making portable <<Haste>> spheres for Leon. In addition to that, she had been getting better at casting quickshot-type skills and applying various other tricks as of late.
At first, she had wanted to get back at Tsutomu — to invent a brand new type of skill that would one-up him. But now, she was not developing her skills with that aim in mind.
Ever since the other day, when Tsutomu had evaluated her portable sphere <<Haste>>, Eunice had had a look on her face so smug that it weirded Milway out.
Tsutomu had approved of this skill — the skill a certain newspaper publisher had named the dumpling <<Haste>>, and the skill that she had worked on for close to two months. Eunice had been so happy about this accomplishment that she had spent hours celebrating alone in her room after the team was done exploring the Dungeon that day.
Later, while giving an interview to a journalist, she had decided on officially calling it a dumpling-type buff, and also declared that she would work to further improve it. And so, Eunice’s goal had changed from one-upping Tsutomu to developing as many useful skills for her team as she could.
[There has to be something more… Something better. I’ll figure it all out, and then…]
Although she still wanted to surpass Tsutomu, right now she was focusing on helping out her team. But of course, if circumstances were to permit, she would also like to gain Tsutomu’s approval with another one of her inventions.
“You’re the only one I need, Leon!”
“Huh? What’s this all of a sudden?”
“So let’s go away together, just the two of us!!”
“…You know I can’t do that. I’m legally married to fifty-eight people!” Leon said, repeating what he had had to say so many times in response to Eunice’s sudden declaration.
The Golden Lycanthrope was, technically speaking, an endangered species, so he was obligated to produce as many offspring as possible. He had explained to everyone that he would be a polygamist — and everyone had fully agreed to that, except Eunice, the only one who had not yet backed down.
“But I will never give up!”
“I know.”
“Good!”
Eunice turned her back on Leon and proceeded to continue walking, and Leon slumped his shoulders, suggesting that this was a common occurrence.
The Golden Tune team proceeded to continue their exploration, and after a while, they were approached by another group.
“…Ealdred Crow?”
When Leon spotted them in the distance, he dashed toward them with tremendous speed. Eunice and the other party members whispered among themselves, and after a short while, Leon returned.
“They don’t have any business with us. Looks like we just happened to run into each other.”
“All right, then.”
Leon was good friends with Rook, the Clan Leader of Ealdred Crow, so even though they were both major Clans, the relationship between them was not bad at all. As such, Eunice nodded to Leon and went back to making dumpling <<Haste>> spheres.
Then Leon’s ears twitched, and he promptly warned his team of the incoming monsters. The team proceeded to get into battle formation.
Eunice used her dumpling <<Haste>> spheres to keep Leon’s AGI constantly buffed, and focused on supporting the Attackers during the battle. Milway, the team’s other Healer, focused on supporting and healing the Tank. The Golden Tune team proceeded to wipe out the monsters without difficulty.
“So I’ve heard she’s developed a new skill… but was that all it is? What a waste of time. Let us be on our way.”
But then, right as the fight ended, Eunice’s ears accurately caught that remark from a little distance away.
“You over there! Stop!” Eunice shouted louder than anyone would imagine someone her size to be capable of, getting a little reaction out of the Ealdred Crow team in the distance.
She proceeded to run toward them, and Leon facepalmed, having heard the earlier remark as well.
“…Stephanie.”
“Ah, hello there, Eunice. Is something the matter?”
Stephanie, sporting a blue dress — which was in fact a Healer equipment that had been looted from a treasure chest in the Snow Field layers — turned around and bobbed a curtsy. For a moment, Eunice was surprised by how ‘darker’ Stephanie came off as compared to before, but she continued,
“Take back what you just said.”
“Oh? And what did I just say?”
“You spoke ill of the skill I made!”
“…Ah, I beg your pardon. I’d heard that Mister Tsutomu had been impressed with it, so I came with great expectations to get a look… but it turned out to be so silly that the words just came out of my mouth. Indeed, I am willing to take it all back.”
Stephanie’s provoking words and smile almost made Eunice’s blood boil, but she remembered that she had just interacted with someone with an even more unpleasant personality. That kept her from getting physical, but that did not mean she was about to let Stephanie just make fun of her dumpling-type skills.
“I don’t care if I’m insulted. I know I’m a worse Healer than both Tsutomu and you. It’s a fact that I’ve accepted.”
Eunice quietly cast her skills, creating a <<Barrier>>-encased <<Haste>> in her hands.
“But I won’t let you get away with making fun of my dumpling sphere!” She declared while holding out the sphere in one hand.
Stephanie, looking at it, had nothing but a cold stare in her eyes.
“…It is nothing but a degraded version of the placement sphere.”
Stephanie took the sphere from Eunice’s hand, observed it for a short while, then threw it to the ground. Then she proceeded to crush it with the high heel of her shoe.
“Your inexperience made you unable to use placement spheres — you only created this out of desperation. It’s worthless.”
“Why I oughtta…”
“How can one of Mister Tsutomu’s students be so pathetic? …Well, I suppose he was not the best at teaching, either. Everyone has their flaws. It’s just that I was able to fill in the blanks myself.”
Her dumpling-type skill had just been approved by Tsutomu, yet now, it was literally being trampled down by Stephanie. Eunice was, naturally, quite livid. She was about to grab Stephanie when Leon stepped in between them.
“Now now, calm down, Eunice.”
“NO! Hmph… Stephanie! Looks like you’ve inherited your mentor’s unpleasant personality! Unfortunately for you, no one’s gonna like that even if you have a pretty face!”
“…I’ll rip those ears off your head, Vulpeer!”
Stephanie held up her conductor baton-like staff. Not even a moment following that, Rook jumped in and hit Stephanie’s head with a karate chop.
“Stephanie. I won’t tolerate you getting into another fight, all right?”
“…Yes, I understand.”
No matter how good of a Healer she factually was, Stephanie had indeed gotten into a fight with Silver Beast previously, so she was not in a position to talk back.
“Rook, man, you’re not doing that good at keeping your people under control, eh?”
“Yeah, sorry about that. Come on, Stephanie.”
“…I’m sorry.”
In contrast to Leon’s good-humored smile, Rook’s expression suggested that he was not amused. Then, after formally apologizing to each other, Golden Tune and Ealdred Crow went their separate ways.
<hr/>
