“Her determination is good. I praise her for that.”
I gently petted Alice’s head, listening to her soft snores over Gabriel’s shoulder. No one could think badly of a fifteen-year-old girl who was trying so hard.
...Okay, maybe Tsukuyomi would.
But at least Cerberus didn’t hate Alice. He would probably praise her determination too.
“Gabriel, I’m sure you were already going to, but please cast an exhaustion recovery spell on her. Try not to wake her up while you’re at it.”
“As you wish.”
“And even if she asks to be pushed this hard, make sure you know where her limits are at.”
“On that note, Master Shinobu, are we continuing with the plan to have her acquire Grade 3 magic, then change course to practical spell training?”
“Yes. Now that we have weapons we know she can fire, we can focus on leveling. We’ll work with the monsters in this region until they aren’t worth the EXP anymore. She’ll probably get to about level 20.”
“Would that be precisely what you planned, Master Shinobu?”
I responded with a nod. “We have to use our time efficiently. Ms. Kaori gave her approval as well.”
“Cerberus is currently resting to regain his true power; therefore only Tsukuyomi will be able to join you this time... Are you positive that you don’t need me to go as well?”
“In addition to protecting Alice, I also need you to help me fulfill the summon conditions for Amaterasu. I’ll be fine with just Bahamut and Leviathan since I have Release of God’s Might.”
“This may be an unwanted suggestion, but I recommend retreating as soon as you feel even the slightest sense of danger.”
“I value my life too, you know. I can always rethink this plan. If things get dangerous, I’ll come back here and take you with me.”
The place I was headed toward at the moment was a dungeon: the Grand Library of Aquatic Wisdom. There were tons of Forbidden Records and stuff there.
I was originally going to go there for Alice’s Grade 3 Scrolls anyway, and it was in the Crimson Moon Brigade’s domain.
Scrolls aside, I also wanted alchemy documents related to golems. If I could add the alchemy techniques to Ms. Isabella’s magic strengthening, that could lead me to a method that powered up Gabriel and the others directly. Those were my main goals for exploring this dungeon.
Gabriel looked up at me. “You are the support for our hearts and the reason for us to live. Please, take care of yourself.”
“I’m so high level that this place won’t even give me any worthwhile EXP. You’re making a big deal out of nothing!”
Ms. Kaori had told me a lot of the reincarnators weren’t level 99 yet. But most of them hadn’t thrown themselves into danger for the sake of leveling up either. Since the natives considered them godlike at level 50 anyway, there wasn’t much of a point in putting themselves in danger just to get stronger. There were enough of them between levels 10 and 40 who’d made sure to level up just enough to put a big margin between themselves and the natives too.
“I wish you luck,” Gabriel bowed.
“I leave the rest to you.”
†
And so, the extermination expedition would begin the next day.
I was successfully able to buff my summons, and their stats gained a twenty percent boost. I’d hoped to do some leveling as well, but I had to prioritize strength as a precaution. Overall, our combat abilities were about as good as they were going to get. Hunting low-level monsters didn’t make for good EXP, so leveling at this stage would come with risks. The best course of action was to level up after everything was said and done.
That said, Alice’s leveling was progressing smoothly. She’d been defeating monster after monster with her firearms, rapidly getting up to level 20. Our targets for this expedition were just Frost Orcs. I was thinking suppression shots from a heavy machine gun would be all she’d need to fight them.
Everything had been going well, so we decided to sleep early in preparation for the following day. The too-wide bedroom made me uncomfortable at first, but I felt reluctant to part with it, knowing that this would be my last night in it.
A mechanical ding ding ding resounded through my head.
—All Frost Orcs confirmed defeated.
—Guild Quest: The Overflow of Permafrost complete.
—1,000 Guild Coins will be rewarded to you as an additional bonus for your first time challenging a Guild Quest.
“What?” My brain couldn’t keep up with the information on the window that had just popped up. The voice of God responded to my whisper like rubbing salt into the wound.
—In 10 hours, the Raid Event: The Ancient Flower Foretells a Sweet Death will begin.
—In 10 hours, the Ancient Flower will awaken and begin to siphon the life force of all of the living beings around it as feed for it to grow at an extreme speed.
—In roughly 24 hours, it will exceed the extermination abilities of humans, so let’s exterminate the Ancient Flower before then!
A horrible cold sweat ran down my back.
Frost Orcs.
The northern city.
And the Ancient Flower.
It would’ve been nice if all of these things were only coincidentally happening at the same time, but I couldn’t bring myself to believe that. But the deal had been sealed when the words “The Ancient Flower Foretells a Sweet Death” showed up.
“Gabriel, this is bad.”
“Indeed, it is. I should have noticed as soon as I heard that the targets for this Guild Quest were Frost Orcs of the northern city. My deepest apologies, Master Shinobu.”
“No, it would’ve been ridiculous of me to expect you to realize this was happening. I hadn’t even heard of raid events occurring in this world. And why is it a past event, even?”