Once we wrapped up our summer homework, we made our way back to the door. Much to our chagrin, all of the Rainbow Guards had been snatched up by other teams. They hadn’t left behind a single one!
Put simply, the Yukino-Homura team and Emily’s party had shot ahead of us while we were stuck doing homework. You’ll have to forgive us for failing to get it. Since then, we all decided to fix our poor habits and do homework first when we went on long breaks. Obviously, our grades improved.
All the parties who had surpassed us had used Emily’s strategy. Ever since then, the symbologist population was on the rise. Research on Elemental Circle progressed. After some time, other pieces of gear were found—mostly by yours truly—to have similar effects to the Death Chariot gear, except for other elements like light. Eventually, symbologist became widely accepted as a peerless one-shot drama-cannon class.
The fact that Elemental Circle gave us some soloing capability was big too. The class’s instant firepower was able to make up for its costliness and weakness in solo farming. Though you had to throw away your money to use it, its instant firepower was the best out there. Crowds of symbologists terrified the mightiest of bosses, and it wouldn’t be long before it was mentioned in the game’s strategy guide.
As for me and Akira, we had fallen right into Akabane and Shizuku’s trap and ended up together. As usual, we got along swimmingly. People around us would say that we didn’t seem very different from before, but none of them knew that if you went too far with your sweetheart, you’d get knocked out due to a moral code violation.
Even after the day Akira had gotten launched off of me and died, she didn’t stop trying. Besides that, I visited her house from time to time.
Eventually, summer vacation was over. Fall came and went, as did our winter and spring breaks. Then came the day that we would become second-year students!
From the window of our guild house, I watched players as they traveled through the district.
“Ooh. I see lots of symbologists among the new students!”
It made me nostalgic for its reputation as King of the Bummers!
“What else would you expect after that strategy vid last summer? You never let up after that either. Take a look at this year’s strategy guide!”
Akira showed me this year’s Unlimited World Guidebook. I took a look, wondering how they’d rated symbologist.
“By default, it’s a back-line class with poor supporting and combat abilities. But with talents such as Knifer and Final Strike, it can become a high-powered burst damage dealer. Your expenses will increase alongside your level. Its solo-farming capabilities are incredibly inconvenient, but ignore all that. Don’t you wanna see the infamous one-shot drama cannon?!”
Oh, what lovely commentary! But maybe that’s thanks to me telling Kataoka to write it that way.
All these people had been attracted to the prospect and decided to try it out. As for me, I was overjoyed to see the results of my experimentation and practice!
“Nice! These writers get it! Now nobody will ever call symbologist the King of the Bummers again!”
“Yep! They gave it a B rating. What a jump, huh?”
“Well, it’s completely different from the back-line support they had in mind,” Yano commented.
“That freedom is part of what makes this game great,” Maeda said. “Fun, don’t you think?”
“Yeah, I guess. Takashiro’s having plenty of fun, at least.”
“Y’know, Ren. If people keep on choosing symbologist, you’ll get to strut around as the guy who pioneered it.”
“Who, me? I’d never do that. In fact, I’d rather give up on it entirely.”
“Say what?!” everyone yelled at once.
“I mean, I already did.”
“Whaaa?! I-It’s true! You’re a beast tamer now!”
“Hey, what’s the big idea?! I thought you got what you wanted!”
“Wh-What a decision... Are you sure about this, Takashiro?”
“Uh, yeah? If symbologist grew out of being King of the Bummers, then naturally, I should grow out of symbologist. I’m here to redefine crappy classes, awaken them, and kill giants! I repeat: redefine, awaken, kill!”
Symbologist had already grown its wings and left my nest! Now it was pretty much on the “top classes” team!
“Hahaha. You freakin’ weirdo.”
“Those are genuinely the only words that come to mind.”
Maeda and Yano looked exasperated beyond belief. On the other hand, Akira just grinned from ear to ear.
“Ahahaha! That’s so you, Ren! You’ll never be free of your disease.”
“It’s not like I wanna be! You can grow out of sword dancer too, Akira. The whole ‘appearance’ problem just solved itself!”
“Ooh, I know this one! You’re gonna pretend this is for my good, but you really just wanna use me, right?”
“Wow, look at you spreading bad rumors.”
“But sure, I don’t mind! What do you want me to do?”
“Good! Okay, check this out.”
Thus, I began to announce the redefinition plan for my second year in school!