“You’ll just have to work hard at it. It’s actually relatively easy to learn new skills as long as you don’t slack off on training. Actually, I was the only one in our party who had the Scout skill at first, but now everybody’s learned it.”
“Even Mary and Metea?” asked Yoshino, sounding a bit doubtful.
Mary immediately nodded and smiled. “Yeah, that’s right! We only learned it a little bit ago, but now both of us have it.”
“So that’s what you can accomplish with training,” mused Sae. “Now that I think about it, you were all up and diligently training early this morning...”
“Perhaps we’ve relied too heavily on a mere handful of high-level skills,” said Kaho.
“Well, that’s by no means a bad thing insofar as all three of you are quite strong,” said Natsuki. “Still, if you want to make progress as adventurers, I believe it would be advisable to train regularly. Of course, if you’re content slaying orcs, there’s no need to do things any differently than you have been.”
“N-Nah, I don’t like thinking about how our future would turn out.” Yoshino grimaced and audibly groaned as if imagining a truly grim fate, then quickly nodded. “Okay. Would you be willing to let us participate in your party’s daily training sessions?”
“You’re quite welcome to join us,” said Natsuki. “It would be beneficial to us, as well, to train and spar with skilled opponents. In addition, Yoshino-san, I believe it would be advisable for you to train in close-quarters combat. The same goes for you, Sae-san.”
“Yeah, definitely, especially since you’re a party of three,” said Yuki. “When you’ve only got a few enemies, you can split up into specific roles, like healer and mage, but I’m pretty sure even Kaho would have trouble holding the line against a lot of monsters at the same time.”
“Since I’m an elf,” said Sae, “I have to ask—Haruka-san, can you handle close-range combat?”
“Of course,” Haruka replied. “If I couldn’t defend myself at all, it would impose too much of a burden on Touya.”
“Ugh. As things stand, I guess I’m dead weight,” said Sae. “I’ll have to do my best to improve. Do any of you have other advice for us? We don’t have much experience as adventurers, since we just did the same kinds of things for money.”
Sae elaborated: Jade Wings had made money almost exclusively by slaying and selling orcs. It had been a safe and stable source of income for them, so it wasn’t a bad choice by any means—except that repeating the same task over and over wasn’t useful from the standpoint of self-improvement as adventurers. That said, we ourselves weren’t pros in the strict sense.
“We may be able to provide answers if you ask us about specific topics, but we’ve mainly learned on the job too,” I said.
“Oh, I actually have something that I want to bring up,” said Touya. “Kaho, your only weapon is that greatsword, right? It’d be better to have some other weapons too. There are places inside the dungeon that are too tight for you to swing that thing.”
“That’s a good point,” I said. “Having a small party plus a small number of options for combat might hinder you at some point.”
Thanks to her Level 8 skills, Kaho wielded her greatsword with consummate ease out here in the woods, but in certain parts of the dungeon, she would be restricted to stabbing and lunging attacks.
“Does that mean it would be a good idea for Kaho to carry around different weapons like Touya does?” Yoshino asked.
“You don’t have to carry quite that much kit,” said Haruka, “but each of us is capable of using a few different weapons, and we always have spares with us.”
Kaho groaned. “Our expenses are mounting up to heaven.”
We’d upgraded and expanded our arsenal a number of times, so we had plenty of spares in our magic bags that we could take out as needed. In contrast, Kaho was usually the only member of Jade Wings who fought on the front line, and she had only one weapon—at the moment, the sword my party had loaned her. The girls had also mentioned wanting to upgrade their armor. All of those purchases would deal a lot of damage to their savings.
Kaho’s shoulders sagged. She glanced at Yoshino, but Yoshino just laughed and shook her head gently.
“Oh, um, yeah, sorry, we won’t be able to purchase new weapons anytime soon.”
“Well, you could end up in serious trouble if you keep on like this,” said Touya. “Oh, wait! I’ve got the perfect thing for a situation like this, ha ha!”
Once again, Touya reached into his magic bag. He was beaming at finally having gotten the chance to deploy the line Yuki had stolen from him earlier. This time, he pulled out a sword that looked similar to the one-hander he used most of the time, but...
“Hmm? What manner of sword is that?” Kaho asked.
It was definitely shoddier-looking than anything Gantz-san and Tomi had ever made for us. I couldn’t remember ever buying something like this.
Wait a second, I do recognize that...
“Right, I remember,” said Yuki. “Didn’t we get that off a goblin general?”
“Dude. Have you seriously been carrying that around this entire time?” I asked.
“Yeah, I thought we could use it in emergencies,” Touya replied. “Forgot I had it until now, though.”
We had acquired this sword six months ago. It wasn’t total garbage, but neither was it fit to replace any of our current main weapons. We had discussed selling it, but it had completely slipped our minds.
“Do you want to try using this, Kaho?” Touya asked. “It might not look like much, but it’s actually pretty decent.”
“It’s not as good as our current elemental metal weapons, but as I recall, it is superior to white iron weapons,” said Haruka.
“What?” Kaho exclaimed. “Do you mean to tell me that a lowly goblin had a weapon better than ours?”
“Uh, it was actually a goblin general, so way stronger than a normal goblin,” I explained. “In fact, it was way more powerful than an orc.”
We had essentially caught it off guard and slain it with ranged attacks, but it would probably have been a formidable foe at close range if our encounters with goblin captains were anything to go by.
“Really? We’ve run into some goblin fighters before, but I guess we haven’t battled the really strong goblins,” said Yoshino.
“If I recall correctly, generals are multiple ranks above fighters,” said Kaho. “In any case, are you certain about this, Touya? You mentioned that this was one of your spare weapons.”
“Yeah, but I don’t mind at all. Like I said, I forgot about it for months. And like Yuki said, I couldn’t sleep if something bad happened to you guys because your weapons suck.”
“I see. In that case, I will gladly accept your offer.”
Kaho did seem genuinely pleased as she took the sword from Touya, and after she gave it a couple of test swings, she nodded with a smile of satisfaction.
“Though it is far from prepossessing in appearance, it does appear to be a good weapon.”
When she looked back and forth between Touya and the new sword, she gasped and covered her mouth.
“First you gave me a white iron greatsword, and now you give me this as well? Would you actually happen to be aiming for me romantically, Touya?”
“Nah, no way,” Touya said immediately. “And also, these aren’t gifts. At some point you’ll need to either buy them or return them.”
Kaho clicked her tongue, then said, “I’m only joking. It appears that I’ll have to grow a bit more in order to succeed.”
Sae had a gentle smile on her face as she patted Kaho on the shoulder soothingly. “You’re almost eighteen years old, Kaho. Unfortunately, you have almost no hope of getting bigger at this point.”