That smirk pissed me off, but she was right.
“Yeah, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I really loved that comic!”
“He he he! It’s super good!”
Mia’s smile proved infectious and I found myself smiling as well.
“Are there any other... Uh, what’d you call it again? Oh yeah, manga. Are there any other manga like this? This thing was clearly made to advertise the class consultation corner the Guild’s doing, but I feel like whoever made this could write regular stories too and they’d all be huge hits.”
The only thing I had to read was dialogue, and the pictures added a sense of immersion you didn’t get from just plain books. Plus the writing was simple so both kids and adults like me without much of an education could enjoy it still.
Chisha frowned and said, “Yeah, I think so too, but...manga is a very new art form and no one else has tried emulating it yet. The person who made the one you just read is really busy, so I don’t think he’ll write any more anytime soon.”
“Oh, is that how it is? Well, if he can write something this good, I imagine he’s super famous.”
“He is, but not because of the manga. In fact, he’s someone you know.” Chisha pointed to the corner of the cover.
I hadn’t noticed it when Mia had initially handed the manga to me, but written in small print was:
“Author and Artist: Rex Tauren”
“Wait, Rex is behind this too?!” I shouted.
The girls all stared pointedly at me.
“I can’t believe you read it without even knowing that.”
“Manual Arts for Dummies and A Guide to the Dungeons Around Freelea were written by him too. Did you really not notice?”
“N-No way...”
Just how many different talents did that guy have? Even a complete amateur like me could tell it must have taken ages for Rex to draw all the pictures for the manga I’d just read. Despite the fact that he must be busy with all of his other obligations, he’d gone out of his way to draw three whole volumes of this manga and then donated it to the library instead of profiting off of it.
What in the world drove him to make something like this? I looked down at the manga with newfound admiration.
“But...”
Everything new I’d found in Freelea seemed to originate from Rex Tauren. At this point even I could tell he was an amazing guy who’d revolutionized not only Freelea’s Adventurers’ Guild, but likely adventuring as a whole. But there was one thing I didn’t get.
“How come Rex is sharing his knowledge and items with everyone for free like this?”
For adventurers, knowledge was power. Maybe I was just old-fashioned, but I couldn’t understand why Rex was freely giving away that power without asking for anything in return.
Ai squared her shoulders and looked sternly up at me. “That’s because Ars was Mr. Rex’s hometown! He doesn’t want that tragedy to happen to any other city, so he’s been trying to make all the world’s adventurers stronger!”
“I...see?”
That was a valid reason, but it was clear to me that Ai was a Rex fan through and through. It was best to take anything she said about him with a grain of salt.
“Ai’s right, but if you ask me, that’s not the only reason,” Chisha said.
Honestly, I was with Chisha there. Considering Rex had made a list of items he’d wanted adventurers to gather for him and offered a huge reward for them, it was clear every move he made was calculated and had a greater purpose to it. Unless he was a literal saint he wouldn’t hand out so many powerful items for free, nor would he just disseminate all the valuable information he found.
Noticing my thoughtful expression, Chisha gave me a surprisingly mature smile and said, “Think about it this way. When you guys conquer a super hard dungeon, you keep all of the best equipment, but you give away or sell the rest, right? I think that’s probably what Rex is doing here too.”
Chisha said the words so casually that it took a second for the enormity of her words to sink in.
“You mean...”
All of this godlike rental equipment, all of this dungeon knowledge even we didn’t gather despite our years of adventuring, all of that is just extra leftovers to this Rex guy? He has even better equipment and knows even more secrets about this world and he’s keeping the best stuff for himself still?
Chills ran down my spine. If that really was true, then Rex, a guy I’d barely even heard of until today, was a more terrifying man than I’d ever realized.
Though...now that I think about it, these girls are teaching all this stuff to us for free too. I glanced over at them.
“How come you girls, and you in particular Chisha, are also willing to teach us all of this stuff for free too?”
“We just felt like it, I guess. Besides you’re the one who asked, and we’re not really doing it for free. You promised to give us your stuff, remember?”
“Liar. You could have just told us about the rental equipment and that would have been enough to uphold your end of the bargain. We would’ve given you the equipment then and there, but you even brought us here and let us read the books you borrowed.”
This party of newbie adventurers knew more about fighting, dungeons, and monsters than we A-rank adventurers did. In other words, the knowledge they possessed was extremely valuable. Surely they were aware of that.
Chisha looked away awkwardly. “It’s nothing special, really. For one thing, it’s uncool to act like you’re smarter than everyone just because you know some things they don’t, and also...” Chisha hesitated a bit, then finally took a piece of paper out of her pocket.
Strength: 6 (Godlike)
Vitality: 5 (Amazing)
Intelligence: 1 (Horrible)
Mind: 5 (Amazing)
Agility: 5 (Amazing)
Focus: 2 (Bad)
Total: 24
“Are those...?”
I suspected the numbers written on that page were Chisha’s innate growth rates. Though I was unfamiliar with the new Freelea, even I could tell they weren’t something you showed other people lightly. Furthermore, it was clear from Chisha’s rates that she really was a prodigy.
Chisha seemed unfazed by the fact that she’d divulged such a personal secret. “As you can see,” she said, “I’m a super prodigy with almost perfect growth rates, but...” She pointed to her Intelligence growth rate. “My Intelligence growth rate is really low. Problem is, every class needs at least a little bit of mana.”
“So that’s why you’ve been hunting for items on Rex’s List,” I replied.
Chisha nodded. “That’s right! Do you get it now? I really need that hat you said was garbage. As long as I level up while wearing that, my Intelligence growth rate will be doubled. Now do you get why we’re working so hard to get that stuff from you?”
Thinking back on it, Chisha’s eyes had lit up the moment I’d taken the Pointy Hat and the Power Band out of my Inventory when I’d tried to explain how the items were trash. Since I hadn’t been part of this environment where people quantified their stats with numerical values, it was hard for me to visualize the difference between her original stats and her boosted ones, but if I thought of it as letting Chisha use twice as many Arts in one fight before running out of mana, I could see why she was getting so serious about helping us.
I see, so that’s why her attitude changed so suddenly. Now that I knew what was motivating her, I felt relieved.
“What’s with that look? You’re thinking something super rude right now, aren’t you?” Chisha asked with a scowl.