While Daggers was busy with some trouble in town, Silica was alone in the forest. Nearby was a burbling river, and if you listened closely, you could even hear some chirping birds. Luckily, there were no threatening monsters in sight.
Silica stood alone in these serene woods. “Nature truly is lovely, isn’t it?”
The picturesque beauty that extended before her left her spellbound. It was the perfect spot for a nap, but Silica wasn’t here to enjoy nature. Technically, she was still in the middle of a quest, which meant there was no time to rest.
She was here for one reason alone. During their previous quest—during the battle to defend Ishtar—she had grown painfully aware of her shortcomings. Just imagining what would have happened if not for Lloyd was enough to send a shiver down her spine.
Ever since Lloyd had joined their party, he had saved Silica countless times. Crumb was nothing to scoff at, but his support magic far outstripped hers. Just why had Lloyd been kicked out of the Hero’s party in the first place? Silica just couldn’t understand what Allen had been thinking.
Jealousy was likely part of it. Lloyd’s skills and knowledge naturally aroused envy, at least in Silica’s eyes. While the real reason didn’t even amount to that much, she had no way of knowing that.
“I need to grow stronger,” said Silica, squeezing her fists to rile herself up. “Storage.”
She activated the storage spell Lloyd had taught her to summon her staff. Then, she held it at the ready toward the river. She closed her eyes, calmed her heart, and focused entirely on her magic.
“Focus. Picture it clearly...” Silica painted a sharp picture of her spell in her head. She was imagining an explosion—a strong one. “Compress the magic, then let it explode...” She muttered those words over and over as the picture in her head further took shape.
Then once that image was perfectly clear, she let out her mana to form a magic circle by her feet. Simultaneously, another giant, red-glowing magic circle two meters in diameter appeared on the ground a few meters away.
However...
“Huh?!”
Things didn’t go as Silica had hoped. She lost control of the spell, which caused the circle to explode, bringing with it a blast that knocked dirt into the air and Silica onto her butt. Since her hands were preoccupied with her staff, she fell hard.
“Ouch... This really won’t go as I hoped. Well, I did know this would be difficult, after all...”
✦ ✦ ✦
Silica hadn’t thought she’d have success on her first try. Ever since she was young, she had possessed the skills of a “magical genius.” However, she was only human, and nobody was perfect. Hidden behind her titles as wunderkind and S-rank adventurer was struggle—Silica worked harder than anyone. She never let up on her training, and that was her true strength.
“Practice makes perfect. I was prepared for failures like this one.”
And while Silica called this an attempt a failure, she had still succeeded at activating magic and creating an explosion. From that standpoint, she was almost there already.
Explosions were high-level magic that could be considered an extension of fire magic. They were hard to put to practical use, as they couldn’t be finely controlled. Still, they were top-class in terms of firepower. Right now, the spell Silica was trying to learn was Burst, the easiest explosion spell out there. But since all explosion magic was high-level, “easy” still meant it’d be more difficult than advanced spells based on the four basic elements.
Silica continued her trial and error, racking up even more failures.
“J-Just one more time...” Silica stood up and brushed the dirt off her clothes. Then, she refocused herself and lifted her staff. “My image needs to be clearer and stronger...”
How could she get closer to success from her previous failures? She worked out the patterns of her narrow misses and used them as a roadmap to once again clearly picture an explosion. Then...
“Burst!”
She chanted the spell. The magic circle looked different this time. It glowed stronger and brighter, glittering like a ruby. It also seemed like she could keep control of her magic, as the circles were incredibly stable. This was certainly a near success.
“I-I did it! This one’s a—”
She was so happy, she messed up.
That’s right, Silica was a diligent hard worker, but she was also a klutz. Typically, she paid careful attention to her surroundings to combat this. But whenever she was alone, she’d let down her guard, and her klutziness would show. Yui and the others had no idea.
Boom! A large splash of water came crashing down toward Silica.
“O-Oops...” By the time she noticed, it was already too late. For a moment, she considered using wind magic to redirect the spray, but she had accidentally dropped her staff.
Her whole body fell victim to the splash. The water seeped into her clothes, making them heavy. They stuck to her skin. “Ugh, I’m soaked...”
She had no choice but to put her training on pause. In her current state, she’d likely catch a cold, which would only cost her more time.
“I suppose I better head back for now...” After warming herself with some fire magic, she returned to town.
However, her klutziness struck again. She failed to notice that the forest landscape had changed. The damage wasn’t drastic, but the shape of the river had slightly shifted, and a big hole had been taken out of the ground. It wouldn’t have any serious effects on the ecosystem, but the forest was still littered with obvious and unnatural damage.
If someone were to see it, they’d certainly report it to town. Silica could use earth magic to fill in the holes, but there was no fixing the grass and flowers that had been dug up in the process.
Afterward, the remnants of Silica’s training were reported to the Adventurer’s Guild. They were told an unnatural pit had appeared in the forest, and since Silica continued to use the spot to further train her explosion magic, the reports quickly expanded to include rumors of a witch living in the forest and odd explosion sounds coming from the woods.
Word spread rapidly among the townspeople, but Silica was none the wiser. Thus, she became a legend of a forest haunting passed down by the town for generations.
✦ ✦ ✦
It had been two days since Lloyd had made his announcement, and Cross had successfully updated his bow and arrows. However, there was still one thing weighing on his mind.
“Seriously, what do I do?”
Cross was an archer, a class that mainly used their bows for long-distance physical attacks. While he was capable of close-range combat with a dagger, his skills far paled in comparison to Yui’s proficiency with a sword.
So, what did that mean? The answer was that he had little room to grow. Even if he dipped his toes into other skills, it was clear he’d never match the skills of his fellow party members. He’d be mid forever.
“Must be nice for them,” muttered Cross, staring up at the sky as he let out a deep sigh.
That’s when a short boy suddenly bumped into him, which sent the kid’s things tumbling to the floor.
“Ow...”
“Oh! Um, I-I’m sorry!” said the boy, bowing over and over.
But Cross knew the boy hadn’t done this on purpose, so he had no reason to be mad. “Don’t worry about it. Neither of us were paying attention,” he said, helping the boy gather his things.
“I-I’m really sorry...” The boy seemed quite frightful as he apologized over and over and picked up his dropped belongings.
“I told you not to worry about it...” muttered Cross as he continued to help the boy. That’s when he noticed the bow on his back. “You an adventurer?”
“Huh?! Well, yeah! But I’m just a newbie, though.”
“Then you’re only just starting out?”
“Yup! I’m about a year into it.”
Cross almost let the words, “Then you’re not a newbie,” slip out, but he managed to keep them in. He personally had attained S-rank relatively quickly, but there were many adventurers who joined when he did who had failed to climb the ranks and quit. But this boy was still trying his best despite being in the same boat, so he didn’t want to hurt his feelings.
“So, you’re an adventurer, huh?”
“Yup. What do you do, sir?”
“Me? I’m an adventurer too.”
“R-Really?!”
“Yup.” Currently, Cross was dressed in clothes that prioritized mobility, and his weapons and armor were stored away as a means of practicing storage magic. Yeah, maybe he didn’t look much like an adventurer right now.
But now that the boy knew what Cross was, he nervously made a proposition. “D-Do you want to form a party with me?”
“Huh?” Cross tilted his head at the boy, unable to follow.
“I-I’m sorry. That’s not something you can just answer immediately, is it? Sorry about that...”
“N-No, it’s fine.” For some reason, Cross just couldn’t ignore this pitiful boy. “I don’t mind if it’s just this one time.”
“R-Really?!” The boy broke out into a full-faced grin.
“Just this once, though, okay?”
“Th-Thank you so much!”
Thus, Cross and the young boy were off to the Adventurer’s Guild.