The next day, we decided to rest, deciding that delving on consecutive days would be too harsh on our bodies. That didn’t apply to me, since I didn’t experience physical fatigue, but I couldn’t say the same about the others.
Niedz, Lukas, and Gahedd in particular were in a state of total exhaustion. If we took them into the dungeon like this, there was no doubt they’d get seriously injured—or worse. While dragging them along served partially as a form of punishment for what they’d done, that didn’t mean I wished serious harm on them.
Still, the effort they’d put into working themselves to the bone yesterday had paid off—according to Capitan, they were beginning to show the signs of a budding ability to use spirit. Ordinarily, that required constant, intense training to achieve. That had been the case for me, and probably for Capitan as well.
However, everything had exceptions and shortcuts, and it seemed that Niedz, Lukas, and Gahedd fell into that category.
Like me, the trio had stagnated at Bronze-class for the majority of their careers, unable to surpass their own limitations. Recognizing that their future prospects looked bleak, they’d grown cynical, continuing to fight monsters just so they could barely earn enough to eke out a living. It was a common story, one that no one would bat an eye at. In the end, they would hit a wall—whether that be a decline in physical ability as they got older or a serious injury suffered during a commission—and be forced to retire.
But something different had happened to Niedz and his friends: They’d met Capitan, a master of spirit. By recklessly picking a fight with me, their path in life had changed dramatically.
According to Capitan, those whose growth had plateaued were better positioned to awaken their spirit. This was because defeating monsters caused a person to absorb a tiny fraction—or much more, if you were a monster like me—of its power, and that included spirit. After all, it was the energy of life and physical strength. Many monsters were living creatures and thus possessed it inherently.
Of course, there were also undead monsters, who had no spirit at all, or monsters that came in the form of intangible phantoms composed entirely of mana. But the monsters like goblins and slimes that the majority of adventurers fought—especially the lower-class adventurers—were alive.
Skeletons were lower-rank monsters too, but dungeons like the Water Moon Dungeon, which had upper levels full of them, were actually quite rare. It was far more common for skeletons and the like to be found in the deeper levels of a dungeon, summoned as pawns of a higher-ranked undead.
In that sense, you could say that the Water Moon Dungeon was rather peculiar. Yet for some reason, most scholars had overlooked it. In hindsight, maybe that was because of the special circumstances surrounding the place. I couldn’t pin down one obvious reason for it, but the Water Moon Dungeon was where I’d met the mysterious woman who’d given me my robe, for one thing. For another, the closest town was Maalt, where Laura was based. Maybe the area itself was special in some way.
Ah, but I was getting sidetracked. My point was that it seemed that Niedz, Lukas, and Gahedd’s training would progress relatively quickly. Capitan had mentioned that after they were done resting today, the goal was to get them to the point where they could use the bare minimum amount of spirit tomorrow. Part of me had wondered if they could really get that far so quickly, but I trusted my mentor’s judgment. If he said it was possible, then it likely was.
As for Diego, since he’d gotten grounding in spirit from a different teacher, Capitan had said that he’d be able to pick it up in no time. They were actually going to take today to work on it while Niedz and the others rested, so they wouldn’t be getting much time to relax...but maybe it still counted as a break. It wasn’t like they’d be fighting monsters, after all, and unlike the adventurer trio, Capitan and Diego had more than enough stamina to handle a little extra training.
Given their plans, they wouldn’t be able to go out into town. However, someone still needed to shop for the supplies we’d need for our next delve the day after. That role had fallen to me, which was why I was currently walking through the city, running through the mental checklist of the items everyone had asked for to make sure I didn’t forget.
The street I was on—a main avenue near Diego’s house—was packed and noisy with people going about their day. Since most of the things I needed would be in the shops that lined the main street, I planned on wandering the area for a while, but I made sure to keep my wits about me. Diego had warned me that Lucaris, being a port city, had people from all over, and some of those people could be rather unsavory types. Apparently, there were a lot of them on main streets in particular.
I’d felt somewhat like a child being fussed over by their mother before their first outing alone, but given that I’d first met Diego after being attacked by Niedz and his friends, I couldn’t exactly refute his point. Still...
“It’s not as if something like that’s going to happen to me again,” I said idly, to myself.
No sooner had the words left my mouth than—
Thud!
—someone bumped into me. Specifically, into my waist area.
I’d actually noticed them approaching and had attempted to get out of the way, but that had been impossible with how crowded the street was—plus, if I’d gone much farther out of their way, I would’ve bumped into a pregnant woman. Fortunately, since I’d braced myself for the impact, I’d managed to avoid colliding with her. Less fortunately, though...
“They got me...”
I’d felt the distinct sensation of my coin pouch being pulled from my belt. I’d secured it fairly tightly with string, but this pickpocket was evidently quite the veteran. They’d used a knife—and rather adeptly at that, given how short the window of opportunity must have been. If I’d reached out, they probably would have cut me across the hand or arm.
That wouldn’t have actually been a problem for me, but I’d been worried for a moment about how it might look to the people around us if I’d gotten sliced up with a knife and just shrugged it off entirely. It seemed all that overthinking had been my downfall.
Luckily, however, I could still see the pickpocket scampering away. I slipped through the gaps in the crowd, pursuing their retreating silhouette.