Volume 2 - CH 6

Chapter 6 – Confirming Each Other’s Abilities

The next morning, after having an early meal at the inn, Eto and his new party headed to the guild’s training ground. Although they have shared information on their abilities to each other, regarding Eto’s support magic, there were many things that cannot be understood until actually experiencing it. And since it is not possible to leave the town until their equipment is ready, they decided to try various things at the guild’s training room first.

Thus, while slipping through the crowd of adventurers competing to take requests, Eto headed to the training room built in the back of the guild. The oval-shaped indoor training room has its ground firmly treaded down, designed to withstand the practice of numerous people. At the edge of the training ground, there were some target practices for magic attacks and bows, and on the other side, swords and axes with sharp blades lined the shelves. And in order to confirm each other’s abilities, they decided to train with swords first.

Firstly, Eto fought without using his support magic. And as expected, without that, Amou’s ability and power greatly surpassed him. Meanwhile, although the dual wielding Kohaku is quite lacking in terms of power, her speed is quite fast, and she also has a sense of combat inherited from her father. Sorano’s dagger arts have also reached a considerable level of skill, to the point Eto wasn’t able to break through her defense with his swordsmanship. In conclusion, it was confirmed that among these four, the ‘normal’ state Eto is the weakest.

Next, they tried various things with Eto’s support magic. When Eto fought using his buffs, it goes without saying he was able to take on three of them. However, if Amou became serious and decided to swing his great sword, the result might not be like that. But in the mock combat, Amou was at the mercy of Eto’s speed.

Eto then applied some buffs to his party members and had them try to move with their swords and bow. It seems Sorano has some experience in receiving support magic, but Amou and Kohaku were surprised because it was their first time receiving buffs. But apparently, it was also the first time Sorano was given such powerful buffs. Eto had her try shooting some arrows while trying some combination of support magic, such as using it with strength buff plus physical strengthening magic or adding wind magic to her arrows.

Lastly, Eto decided to have his party members try the effect of his debuffs. Eto tried to give them all debuffs that he knew one by one, such as a debuff that could dull one’s movement ‘Slow’, a debuff that could cause an abnormal status similar to being sent into darkness ‘Dark’, a debuff that pushes one’s body against the ground ‘Gravity’, a debuff that could inflict continuous pain to one’s body ‘Pain’, and a debuff that erases any sounds of one’s surrounding ‘Silence’.

Although Eto used a method of cutting the duration of the debuff in a short time by immediately applying the opposite of those debuffs, it seems that the three still had a hard time. When Eto told them those debuffs can be layered, the three started to look like they felt despair.

“I now know very well that Eto’s abilities are heinous.”

As Kohaku said that, Amou and Sorano nodded many times.

For the next two days, Eto spent his time practicing cooperation techniques with his party members while having them accustomed themselves to Eto’s buffs.

And three days later, as the weapons and armors were finally ready, all of them wore their respective equipment and went out of the town. Then, after defeating some goblins in the forest and correcting their coordination many times, they finished that day’s adventure.

“I’m going to get a request from the guild tomorrow.”

That night, when Eto said so in the inn room, Amou deeply nodded, and Kohaku clenched her fist in front of her chest and shouted “Yosh” to fire herself up. Even Sorano, who seemed to be expressionless at first glance, also had her cheeks slightly red.

Tomorrow is the first day of Eto’s adventure with his new party members. And Eto vowed that he will give the safety of his party members first priority, and fulfillment of the request second1.