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Chapter 31 – On the way to the Graveyard
A few days later Luce and I were heading towards the Graveyard of Sorrows from La Colina under the command of Kalos.
Twenty adventurers were mobilized over all.
There were a few C rank adventurers among us, but most of us were B rank adventurers.
“Being able to hire this many high rank adventurers, cities with money to burn are sure something.”
The reason why the Guild prepared a force this large was most likely due to Kalos persuading them of a need for it.
“Elma-san, there is no need to be so mean….”
“I-I wasn’t making a dig at Rondalm with that or anything…..!”
Also, the Edvan Family is pretty well off too.
….it’s just that they don’t work as close with the adventurers’ guild like they do here in La Colina.
“Teacher, was there really a need for all these people? I really doubt that. We don’t need so many useless baggages with us. Bringing a few people that can use white magic with us would’ve been just fine.”
“We gathered a bit more people than what we should need. It’s somewhat far from here, so the situation might’ve worsened while I was away from it.”
Kalos and Hilde were walking a bit further ahead of us.
Apparently Kalos didn’t really want to bring Hilde with us, but then she begged enough that Kalos didn’t have any other choice but to include her in the Raid Quest in the end.
“….why does the disciple of the Black Flame Sword have a sickle as a weapon?”
“I dunno….? Maybe she switched to a sickle based Skill Tree?”
The other adventurers kept pointing at the back of Hilde, gossiping about her with quiet murmurs.
I quickly averted my gaze.
….Hilde’s equipment was still the Black Steel Sickle and the Bear Shield.
Hilde bowed her head to ask Kalos to lend her a spare sword, but he then said that ‘she should remain like that to not forget the lessons learned from the duel’.
Still, having her participate in a Raid Quest in equipment like that sounds a bit too harsh to me. Her Skills as a Magic Swordsman are a bit too costly to use and provide too much of a backlash as well.
With that equipment, she won’t be able to make good use of her Skills at all.
She’ll be fighting only supported by her basic stats.
Perhaps her teacher feels that she will be less likely to act recklessly like this.
“I wonder why Kalos-san accepted that Hilde-san as his disciple?”
Luce mumbled with a small frown.
“Sorry for being that Hilde.”
Hilde was standing in front of us all of a sudden.
“Hyau! I-I’m sorry Hilde-san. I didn’t really mean it that way…..!”
Luce hurriedly tried to backpedal.
After Hilde managed to shut Luce up, she moved her glare towards the adventurer duo that was gossiping about the mystery of her equipment.
Those two also quieted down right away.
….however, the more I see Hilde trying to be intimidating like that, the more she reminds me of a small dog.
“I haven’t really done anything to be called her teacher though.”
Kalos also fell in step with us.
Seeing Kalos join us, Luce’s expression relaxed obviously.
With Kalos present, Hilde should be more docile.
“I consider the Magic Swordsman a strong Class. However….it’s not at all energy efficient. Yet thanks to its high offensive power, the breadth of enemies it can take down is wide. This can easily lead to disagreements with other party members due to differences in how to approach things. If left alone, this could lead to the person unable to achieve anything notable, which leads to them getting isolated within the Guild, which may as well mean their end as an adventurer…..The final result is most often the person taking extreme chances while going solo and dying alone.”
What Kalos was talking about just now was something that happened sometimes even in Magic World.
While everything is going well the party would support each other, yet once it turns into an argument they would start bringing up each other’s shortcomings, breaking up the party in short order.
This happens here as well, similarly how it did while it was just a game.
In this world where working as an adventurer is literally a matter of life or death, the arguments that spark between people with incompatible personalities that team up only due to desperation almost always lead to a serious mud slinging contest.
Like Kalos just said, a Magic Swordsman’s lack of energy efficiency and its ability to take down a wide range of opponents are characteristics that could easily lead to disagreements on how to deal with things.
Especially since in Magic World, the best way to level up was to come up with a way of defeating higher level opponents, rather than hunting a lot of lower level ones.
For a Magic Swordsman, the most efficient way of operating would be to let their teammates take down the enemies along the way and only actively fight against the most powerful monsters, but rarely such things would be allowed to happen.
The difference in each member’s basic interests would always lead to friction.
Kalos said that he wasn’t blessed with good teammates when started out either.
He must’ve experienced a lot of arguments back then.
“If you get too impatient, you become unable to see the world from other people’s perspective. I was the same once. I felt that no one understood me and I was over eager to leave my mark….I was always complaining about people being selfish, while acting selfish myself. Even now, I wish that someone would’ve been there to calmly offer me some advice. That’s my reason why I called out to Hilde.”
It seems Kalos also had it rough before he reached his current position.
But…. Kalos is really a person of character.
I’m glad that the first A rank adventurer we’ve met is such a decent person.
“My Teacher is such a generous, strong, and nice person! He’s so amazing, am I right?”
“….it would be nice if his disciple would learn to be more like him though.”
“What did you say!?”
I let out a sigh.
Luce brought up the question of why Kalos would make Hilde his disciple. The reason seems to be because he thought that the most likely outcome for her was getting killed by monsters due to recklessness.
And as someone with the same Class, he couldn’t just leave her be.
However, after hearing all that, I can somewhat understand why Hilde’s personality is the way it is.
What’s good for a Magic Swordsman might not be what’s good for the party.
Because the optimal strategy within a Dungeon as a Magic Swordsman, leaving the small fry entirely for others to take care of and then only contributing to the fight against the main target, is also the most efficient method for leveling.
That being said, meekly letting someone else have the benefits might lead to getting branded as a useless tagalong in the end.
To make it as an adventurer, a certain chutzpah might perhaps be necessary.
“Kalos-san’s wild days….I can’t imagine it at all.”
Luce whispered after Kalos and Hilde went ahead to lead the way.
Indeed, I also can’t imagine that mild-mannered Kalos getting into an argument with his party members, or kicking up a fuss about something at a smithy or within the Guild.
“….well, I think he must’ve exaggerated his past a bit to make Hilde’s actions seem more reasonable.”