13
The next day, I woke up quite a bit early.
I rubbed my eyes while taking out Exe and Rex from their Pokéballs.
The familiar flash of light appeared.
"Shaaa!"
"Raaah!"
Exe floated lazily beside me while Rex immediately stretched and let out a proud roar.
The two of them were very energetic this morning.
"Well, good morning to you two as well."
After preparing camp and giving Rex the last part of our previous meal, I began making my way toward the Adventurer Guild.
While walking through the streets of Axel, and ignoring the look of the passer-by, I found myself thinking about the current state of the plot.
(— If I'm recall correctly, after the encounter with Darkness, the next morning, Kazuma will learns some skills from Chris, and a bit later after that, the special Cabbage Harvest Day will begin.)
Thinking a little about the plot course of the Harvest, I remarked Exe looks at me with a curious look.
( If you can say that he has one.)
And 'Cabbage Harvest Day' is one of the unique settings of the KonoSuba world. Like bananas being caught in rivers or saury growing in fields, there are weird settings.
Cabbages also fly around in swarms like locusts and attack people with body slams. They're stronger than you'd think, so they're hard to catch unless you're an adventurer, and they taste good, so they're expensive.
But not all cabbages are expensive. Sometimes lettuce is mixed in the swarm. It looks similar to cabbage, so it's hard to tell apart, and it's not worth much, so even if you harvest it, you don't make much money. It's basically a dud.
Even considering that, it's like a sweet rain event for poor adventurers to make big money easily. That swarm of cabbages is coming to Axel Town today.
——————
I went to the dining hall to eat breakfast.
A lot of adventurers were already there and, more importantly, they all had their eyes on me with great curiosity.
And considering that a floating haunted sword and miniature dinosaur might be eyes catching.
I simply ignore the stare and begin to search towards an empty table.
But it seems that most of the tables were occupied by the adventurers, and I don't want to join any of them.
I take a look at the bar section and see Kazuma was sitting next to Megumi.
(—Should I join the two of them ?)
(—Well we barely have a discussion yesterday and except of that I don't even have an interaction with the other.)
This realisation about my current situation with Kazuma group makes me thinking about what I really wanted to do in this world.
(—If I wanted to join them or just that I want to be friends with them ?)
I noticed Kazuma asking Megumin a question.
"Hey, I've been meaning to ask… How exactly do you acquire skills?"
(—Ah.)
There it was.
The scene had officially started.
I hesitated briefly.
Before eventually walking over.
"Mind if I sit here?"
—Kazuma PoV—
"Hey, I've been meaning to ask… How exactly do you acquire skills?"
It was the day after we'd fought the Giant Toads. We were having a late lunch at the Guild tavern. In front of me, Megumin, who apparently had no money and had been unable to eat anything decent until she met us, was single mindedly working her way through a combo meal.
Aqua was getting a nearby waiter to bring her seconds. She sure had a fine appetite for a woman her age. You'd think a party of two girls and one guy would basically be a starter harem, but this wasn't hot at all.
Megumin looked up, fork still in hand.
"How to learn skills? Why, from the place on your card that shows currently available skills, of course… Oh, your class is Adventurer, is it not? Since that's a starter class, you have to have someone teach you new skills. Have them show you a skill, then guide you through it. Then it will appear on your card, and you can allocate points to it. Simple."
"Okay."
I was pretty sure the clerk at the Guild said Adventurers could learn any skill.
"Mind if I sit here?"
The moment I heard that voice, I nearly jumped out of my chair.
There she was.
The dark elf from yesterday.
"Y-you!"
The words escaped before I could stop them.
She tilted her head slightly.
"Good morning to you as well."
(—Why does that somehow make me sound rude?!)
Apparently she wasn't nearly as affected as I was.
The dark elf glanced at the empty seats.
"I'm assuming these aren't reserved?"
"N-Not at all, Please sit." I answered immediately.
She looked at me strangely before taking a seat.
And then—
(— A dragon ??)
""Raaah!"."
And then, before I could even properly register the first anomaly there, I remark an ominous floating sword beside her drifted behind her.
Strangely enough, the sword looks like one of the short sword in this Wuxia game in played before.
The tiny dinosaur climbed onto the chair next to her and looked around proudly like he owned the guild.
"—You better stay still or otherwise you will go back in your Pokeball."
The dragon just stay still and begin to looking around.
And while she commanded a meal at the waitress, I could sense Megumin intensive look at the two of them.
Her crimson eyes were practically shining right now.
"…Kazuma-Kazuma."
"Yes, it my name ?"
Suddenly her voice grew softer as she spoke.
"Introduce me."
"What?" I looked at her confused.
"I want you to introduce me at that elf there."
"You can do that yourself."
"Please ntroduce me."
I stared at her.
Her face was so very…very…close…
"C-calm down already, jailbait! I only know her since yesterday."
"J-jailbait…?!" Megumin was too overcome to continue the conversation.
"Fine."
I sighed.
"This is… uh…"
A horrible realization struck me.
I didn't actually know her name.
"…I-I just realized I never asked your name, my name is S-Satou Kazuma."
The dark elf looked mildly surprised.
Then she smiled slightly.
"Noah Alexendrie, but you can call me Noah."
"Right. N-Noah, this is Megumin, a member of my party."
"Sadly," I added under my breath.
Megumin immediately stood up.
"I am Megumin! Arch-Wizard of the Crimson Demon Clan! Wielder of the strongest offensive magic known to mankind!"
She pointed dramatically toward the ceiling.
"Explosion!"
I expected Noah to be at least a little surprised.
Instead, she simply gave a thumbs up.
"Sounds impressive."
Megumin froze.
"I know, right?"
"Indeed."
The two nodded at each other.
Then Megumin's attention immediately shifted elsewhere.
Then immediately ignored Noah completely and jumped straight behind her and stared straight toward the floating sword and the dragon.
Her eyes began shining.
"…A dragon."
"Raaah!"
Rex puffed out his chest proudly.
"And a living sword…"
"Screee?."
Megumin slowly turned toward Noah.
"Where did you find them?"
She looked like she thinks about it, then—
"— You can say these two are a gift from my professor a professor, and I highly doubt you would see any like them so!!!"
"Understood!!"
Then she immediately moved closer to the sword .
The sword loated backward.
Megumin followed.
Exe floated higher.
Megumin stood on her chair.
Exe floated even higher.
"Come back."
"Scree?"
"I merely wish to observe you."
"Sha."
Meanwhile the dragon had climbed onto the table and was currently inspecting my food.
Again.
"Oi."
"Raaah?"
The dragon stared at me.
I stared back.
"-but you can have it."
Obviously I wouldn't want to anger a literal dragon because of some toad meat.
The dragon slowly opened his mouth.
"HEY!"
Noah sighed.
"Rex."
The dinosaur immediately froze.
"Raaah…"
"Just sit there."
After a brief internal struggle, Rex reluctantly returned to his seat.
I had no idea how Noah managed that.
Then again—
(—Maybe she just competent?)
"Anyway," Noah said, turning toward me, "it looked like you were discussing skills before I arrived."
"Oh. Right."
I pointed toward Megumin.
"I was asking her how skill acquisition works."
She was there trying to grab the sword while he was flying above her.
(—She really looks like a child with a behaviour like this.)
" Well if you want I can explain it to you?"
—Noah POV—
From there, I explained everything I knew about the skill system, so all of that Megumi should have tell I'm in the first place.
Not that it was particularly complicated.
Every person possessed a certain amount of skill points.
Those points could be invested into abilities compatible with their class.
More advanced classes had access to stronger skills, while Adventurers had the unique advantage of being able to learn almost anything provided someone was willing to teach them first.
Which was honestly one of the reasons Adventurer was such a ridiculous class in the long term.
It started weak.
But its growth potential was absurd.
But even through it seems op, the numbers of times that he died overall in the anime is pretty concerning.
Kazuma listened surprisingly attentively.
Just the occasional nod whenever I mentioned something useful.
(—He really is smarter than people give him credit for.)
Most adaptations tended to focus on his failures.
But underneath all that, Kazuma was actually pretty competent.
Just horribly unlucky.
Or perhaps incredibly lucky depending on how one looked at it.
After all, most people would have broken down long ago if they had to manage Aqua on a daily basis.
Speaking of Aqua—
I glanced toward the blue-haired goddess.
She was still doing her show, or party tricks like Kazuma like to call it.
(—Never mind. He's definitely unlucky.)
Several nearby adventurers continued staring at him nervously.
To be fair, seeing a miniature dragon eating breakfast inside a guild was probably not a common sight.
"So basically," Kazuma said after a moment, "if I find someone who knows a skill, I can potentially learn it?"
"Provided your class allows it and you have enough points, yes."
"Huh."
His eyes drifted downward toward his Adventurer Card.
"Well, I hit level 4 and got skill points, so I'm wondering what skill to learn."
"How many points do you have?"
"3 points."
Three points at level four.
That was… honestly pretty rough.
(—Even I had started with more points than that. Then again, comparing anyone to Aqua was cheating.)
(—Well, he solves it with tricks later, but starting with 0 points and getting 1 point per level... I should be nice to Kazuma.)
"Hmm... I looked into it, and usable attack skills are almost all over 10 points. But that doesn't mean low-point skills are bad. It depends on how you use them. The question here is whether to take low-point skills first and gradually learn stronger skills, or hold out, save points, and take a powerful skill at once."
"So it's a difference in growth policy?"
"Mostly the same."
Just then, Megumin, who just give up at trying to catch Exe, and came back to eat, said.
"Just go for Explosion Magic, then?"
"Kazuma only has 3 points. Explosion Magic is like around 50 points right ?"
"Uwa... that magic is 50 points?"
"Yeah, it differs a bit depending on magic comprehension, but I heard the average is 50 points. It's the strongest magic, after all."
Megumin struck a smug pose.
"Fufufu~ Now do you understand my greatness? So let's walk the path of explosion together."
"Why do you know so much, Noah ?"
"I... started gathering information from the moment I came here. Read books, asked people."
(—Well it completely BS, but it can be the case.)
Just then, Darkness and Chris approached. Chris had short sky-blue hair and a vertical scar on her cheek that practically screamed 'I'm a thief.'
And true to the original, Chris was... too lacking.
If I have to make a comparison, if I can still be considered more gifted than her.
(—and that might be a problem later.)
"Found you! You said yesterday you'd think about it and went back, but today I absolutely have to talk..."
Kazuma answered without hesitation.
"I refuse."
"Kuuuung~~~ instant answer...!?"
Darkness turned red and squirmed.
"Isn't that a bit too harsh, Darkness?"
"Hey, you!"
"Haha, you can't do that, Darkness. Being so aggressive."
"Um, you are?"
"I'm Chris! As you can see, a thief. And I'm like, friends with Darkness?"
I always have a through in mind, why Chris travels with her.
And now considering that she is a devout Eris follower, and that other parties won't take her, so I think that she probably pities her.
"You want a useful skill, right? How about thief skills? They cost few points and are useful in many ways."
"Um, Thief skills? What kind of skills are those?" Chris seemed pleased by his question.
"I'm glad you asked. They're very useful, for starters. You can detect and disarm traps; you can set an ambush or steal an item. There are even a bunch of great passive abilities. Your class is Adventurer, right? Well, you don't even need many points to learn Thief skills. It's a great deal. What do you say?"
Surprisingly he suddenly looks at me like he was waiting an approval of my part.
"—Well it seems pretty
"Hee~"
"Right now I'll teach you for a glass of Crimson Beer!"
"All right—it's a deal! Waiter! One Crimson Beer for the lady, please!"
"Excellent!" Chris said immediately.
The moment the beer arrived, she grabbed the mug with alarming speed.
(—I hope it was worth, the embarrassment.)
I already knew how it would end.
I don't have any interest at seeing how it will proceed, and I have something that I need to do before the Cabbage Harvest starts.
I stood up.
"Hm?"
Kazuma looked up.
"Leaving already?"
"For a bit, I have some purchases to do so I'll go check the market."
I pointed toward Exe.
" We move Exe." And then I take Rex into his Pokeball while Exe was flying near me.
"Good luck, and try not to learn any illegal skills."
Kazuma nodded at that.
"That sounds weirdly specific."
"It wasn't."
Then I left the guild.
(—So, where I can get a bow?)
—End—