He’s From the Strongest Guild and She’s a Newbie - Chapter 9 – I Want to Become Stronger

Kazuki Kurotsuki’s POV

During lunch break, as always, I’m sitting on the emergency staircase of the south building. The building is mainly used for practical classes, so there aren’t many people coming in and out, which makes it the perfect place to spend some time alone. As I eat the lunch I bought on my way to school, and stare at the sky, I hear footsteps of someone coming up the staircase.

“Kurotsuki-kun, sorry! Did I make you wait?”

“Nah, it’s fine. You’re actually quite early. Did you eat anything?”

“Y-yeah. So I’m good now!”

Sumeragi is slightly out of breath. Not even 20 minutes have passed since the beginning of lunch break, I didn’t expect her to show up this early.

Does she want to ask about something this badly?

But before thinking about that, let’s help Sumeragi calm down; it looks like she rushed here. Feeling that it’s my fault, I give her a bottle of tea I bought together with my lunch this morning.

“Sorry for making you come all this way. Here, take this, it hasn’t been opened yet.”

“Huh?! You don’t have to do this. No need to worry about me.”

“But I am worried. So just take it to make me feel better.”

“Okay, then. Thanks.”

Sumeragi holds out her hands, but is still hesitant, so I almost have to force her to take it. Only then does she reluctantly accept it and starts drinking. I decide to use this timing to bring up the main topic.

“So, there’s something you want to ask, right?”

“Ah, yeah! Right! …Huh? What was it again?”

It seems that she has completely forgotten, so she crosses her arms and hums for some time, trying to remember. It almost looks like there’s a question mark floating above her head.

“…Ah! Right! I want to become as strong as you! What should I do?” Sumeragi asked, as the question mark turned into a lightbulb.

This time it was my turn to scratch my head in response. She can’t be exactly like me, because she’s a mage. Besides, wanting to become stronger is too vague.

However, Sumeragi’s expression is serious, and I can sense that she genuinely wants to achieve what’s on her mind. But there are different types of strength, so first, she needs to clarify what exactly she’s aiming for.

“Hmm… I understand that you want to become stronger, but in what sense?”

“Oh, good question. In what sense… Hmm…”

“…For example, do you want to cast powerful spells, or do you want to use various types of magic, or do you want to cast spells in rapid succession? There are many approaches.”

“Right… To be honest, I want to say “all of it”, but I think powerful magic is the most important to me. I want it powerful enough to oneshot everyone.”

Focusing solely on power is the simplest and most straightforward approach, but it requires inherent talent. For now we need to check Sumeragi’s status page.

“Okay… I see. In that case, I need to check your status page first. Do you have the game linked to your phone?”

Magia has a feature which allows you to link it to your smartphone, so that you can check your stats, accepted quests, and notifications from friends without the hassle of logging in to the game. If you use it, you have access to some of your character information wherever you are, at any moment.

“Yeah, I do. It looks like this. What do you think?”

“Ah, no, you don’t have to show it to me. Generally, it’s best not to show it to other people. Just read the information, when somebody asks.”

“Oh, is that so? Got it. But showing it to you is alright with me.”

“…I see.”

Somehow, Sumeragi has a lot of trust in me. It’s kind of concerning, I hope she won’t be deceived by some bad people.

“Alright then, can you tell me the colour of your attribute and your battle type?

＊『Attribute』and『Battle type』＊

Players and monsters in the Abyss Realm each have one of the seven following attributes: red, blue, green, white, black, void. All except void are possible for players to have.

Red -> Fire

Blue -> Water, Ice

Yellow -> Earth, Stone, Mineral

Green -> Wind, Lightning, Nature

White -> Light

Black -> Darkness

Void -> None, Poison, Gravity

When using abilities of your own attribute, your attacks are more powerful than when using any of the other attributes. Excluding void, each of the 6 attributes is strong against another one. red, blue, yellow, and green form a relation similar to rock-paper-scissors: red is strong against green, green against yellow, yellow against blue, and blue against red. White and black both are strong against each other. However, players’ attributes have no weaknesses. For example, a player with a red attribute will not be weak to blue attribute’s attacks.

There are 3 battle types: active, immobile, and mobile.

Active types can buff their damage.

Immobile types can buff their endurance, allowing them to take on powerful attacks.

Mobile types can buff their movement speed, and reduce their skill cooldowns to use the same skill again faster.

“Umm… The attribute is red and the battle type is active.”

Red and active… This has great potential.

The red attribute is known for having spells with higher raw power compared to other attributes. It’s the best fit for Sumeragi, since wants to oneshot. Active battle types buff their damage, so this is also perfect.

“So, how is it?”

“The red attribute has a lot of powerful spells, and the active battle type can buff damage. I think it’s a really good combination.”

“Really?! Yaay!”

The rest depends on her motivation.

“The next step is to raise your stats correctly. You know how when you level up, so do your stats? Each job has specific ones that increase when levelling up, but aside from that, there’s something called effort value, or EV, which is added as a bonus.”

“Effort value? EV? Sorry, Kurotsuki-kun, could you explain it more clearly?”

Smoke starts coming out of Sumeragi’s head. These things are usually easier to remember by actually doing them rather than listening to explanations. Let’s keep it brief, and leave the details for later.

“How should I say it… It’s important what you do before levelling up. For example, let’s imagine that you, a magic user, are only defeating enemies by hitting them with your staff. As a result, when you hit the next level, your strength is going to increase, does that make sense?”

“Umm, so my strength would increase, because I would only be using physical attacks, is that correct?”

“Exactly. And if you did it while also dodging enemy attacks, you would increase not only your strength, but also agility. So it all depends on what you prioritise.”

“I see. So this is what effort value is, huh. In that case, what I should be doing is defeating enemies with powerful magic?”

“That’s right. From now on, when you fight, you need to go all out to conjure magic as powerful as possible, without worrying about anything else.

“So you’re saying that there’s a difference between simply using magic and going all out with it?”

“I should explain that in detail, too, but if I do it now, the information overload might be too much for you, so I will tell you next time.”

“Probably, thanks…”

I told Sumeragi to go all out, but if she tries that, she will definitely have mana problems. She’s barely started playing, so she doesn’t have much money to deal with it. …Well, I told her to do it, so it’s only fair that I should help out. I happen to have a bunch of low-level healing items taking up space in my inventory anyway, so I might as well give them to her.

“Sumeragi, later I will send you a gift box with some mana potions and items useful to a mage, so grab them after you log in.”

“Huh?! You really don’t have to! I’ve only started playing, so I can’t return the favour!”

“I don’t need anything in return. I’m only giving you things I won’t be using anyway. Besides, I’m the one who told you to use your magic, so just take them.”

“Ahh… Thank you so much for everything. I will definitely become strong to repay you!”

“Sure. Looking forward to it.”

“Okay! Just wait for it!”

It’s almost time for the lunch break to end, so it’s about time to wrap things up. It would be troublesome to go back together, so it’ll be best if Sumeragi heads back first.

“The bell will probably ring soon, so you should leave first. I will take my time and go a bit later.”

“Oh, yeah, right. Okay! I’ll head back first! …Umm, Kurotsuki-kun, can I also come here tomorrow?”

“Huh? Yeah, no problem. I’m not running away, so you don’t have to rush here.”

“All right! Thanks! I’m going, then! See you in the classroom!”

Sumeragi waves her hand with a smile, and dashes down the stairs.

She really likes Magia, doesn’t she? She seems motivated, and to be honest, I’m looking forward to seeing how strong she becomes.

After Sumeragi goes down, I wait for a moment, then leave just at the right time to be back in the classroom when the bell starts to ring.

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