CH 49

[Let’s begin! Gravity!]

Alongside his call, Nuku casted a spell towards a squire.

The squire is capable of nullifying all long-range attacks.

Naturally, Offensive Magic is no exception to this, but there were some magic that are capable of piercing through blocking abilities like that.

, which Nuku used, is a magic learned by the Fourth-Tier Magic-user Class, .

It’s a rare magic that slows down the target’s movement speed, and bestows upon them , which seals their Movement-type Skills

The weighed down squire clearly slowed down, but when they judged that they had been attacked, their target shifted from the decoy to Nuku.

[Leave it to me!]

Thereupon, leaping into battle was Radd.

He stepped forward with his sword and the large shield prepared for this purpose.

At that moment……

[Shield Up!]

Mana casts Reinforcement Magic on Radd from behind.

A phosphorescent glow covers Radd, and at the same time, the squire comes up to him and brings his sword down.

[Gotcha!]

However, Radd remained unperturbed.

With a shout brimming with fighting spirit, he used to block the slash with the shield in his left hand.

Like , is a special action that is triggered by imbuing magic power to the equipment on your non-dominant hand.

In game terms, both actions are triggered by pressing the Special Action-button, but if you hold the button down while holding a shield, you can use , and if you move the shield while tapping the button, you can .

The timing to use these two skills is critical, but you can aim for a reversal with , while is more stable but less effective.

However, even if it’s just , if your timing of using it is right, it can cause the opponent to stagger, albeit slightly.

When the squire staggered back from a well-placed attack, a blonde girl rushed in.

[Hmph!]

With an exhale, Prana thrusts out her spear.

With long-range attacks ineffective against the squires, Prana cast aside the bow and took up the spear.

Weapon damage is basically compensated by “STR”, but some weapon types are also affected by other ability values.

Among these, the spear, like the bow, gains strength more from dexterity, making the correction depend more on your “FOC”.

Prana’s precise, peerless stab, which was made in her reputation as a Sniper, passed through the gap in the squire’s armor.

[————-! ! !]

The armored squire writhes in silent agony, and of course, that is an opening that Radd and his party would overlook.

[————-!]

Not caring if their opponent is armored or not, if Radd strikes, Prana won’t yield as she thrusts her spear.

Even so, when the squire exerted the last bit of pride within it and raised their sword……

[—————-]

“She” had already prepared, waiting for the right moment to strike.

[————-.]

Her voice quietly echoing in the room, a deadly blade pierces the squire’s back.

The armored squire gazed in wonder at the blade protruding out of their chest for the last time, before collapsing and disappearing within particles of light.

Standing behind them was Resilia.

She gazed emotionlessly as the fallen squire disappeared in the air.

(Even if they’re just the Boss’ lackies, for them to be able to deal with them this easily……)

The number of squires that had been generated over the week was once again wiped out by Radd and the others.

However, as long as the centerpiece of this monster generator, and the decoy remains, squires will continuously be summoned indefinitely.

Radd’s party was groggy after defeating more than a hundred squires, but after a night’s sleep, they were soon back on their feet.

As they said “Let’s beat them all up until we reach Lv 30”, they are now on “another round” for the infinite grind.

They were having a hard time at first, as the front line would sometimes collapse, but now that their abilities have improved and they remembered the pattern of the enemies, the enemies are now no different than sitting ducks.

Dealing with them at a gradual pace of one every few dozen seconds, at last……

[I- I did it! I leveled up!]

Mana, who was the one with the least amount of EXP she was able to gain in the party, said this, and everyone reached Lv 30.

Upon her words, Radd and the others cheered.

[Old man, we did it! We have now become full-fledged Adventurers!]

Seeing Radd’s party running up to me, looking so happy from the bottom of their hearts, I trembled.

Of course, that trembling wasn’t due to the excitement of seeing my guidance come to fruition……

(What the heck are these stats, it’s too strong!)

I couldn’t stop my body from shaking as Radd and the others were growing up too fast.

The scariest thing was that Radd and the others were still Lv 30.

They were still 4 levels lower than the Lv 34 Verteran.

They were still 20 levels lower than the Lv 20 me.

And yet, their Status was……

There’s hardly any chance I could win against them!

(Moreover, it’s not just one of them that is like this!)

Although I have an overwhelming advantage over Radd in terms of “MGC” and “FOC”, stats that he intentionally suppresses in favor of his other stats, and slightly ahead in “AGI” and “MND”, but when it comes to “STR” and “VIT”, which are important for a warrior, I’m almost a hundred point behind.

To put it simply, the difference between our PATK and PDEF would be close to 1.5 times.

It’s such a despairing difference that I can say with certainty that if I were to fight him in a fistfight, not only would I lose, it would be such an overwhelming loss that it couldn’t be called a match at all.

And the fact that Radd, who aims to be the party’s tank and attacker, is a balanced type in this group, with modest ability values in terms of attack power, brings about even more despair.

Since the rear-guard can lean their stats toward attack to a certain extent, each of them has strong ability values.

Both Nuku and Prana have stats that easily exceeded the 300 mark, and Mana’s “MND” had finally reached the 400 mark.

(D*mn it, this difference between us is just too much!)

Because of her frequenting the Guild’s prayer room so much, Mana gained the nickname brimming with chuuni-ness, .

In the game, the Hero would also be called by a nickname according to their fighting style, so perhaps, the residents’ love of nicknames may have been reproduced from the game.

—————The is the strongest in the early-game.

I never thought that beings that shatter such an established theory would appear so soon.

It has only been two months since the Goddess of Salvation’s .

Even by game standards, the pace of surpassing Rex within two months since the start of the game is just too fast.

(No. No matter how you look at it, this would be because of me huh……)

My mind had been so focused on setting up an infinite grind system that I didn’t think much about the consequences of doing that.

[Old man?]

When I saw the curious looks on Radd’s face as he ran up to me, I hurriedly tried to maintain my composure.

(……It’s alright. It will be alright.)

The secret of Radd and the others’ strength lies in “the increase in ability level by equipping growth correction equipment” and “superior abilities through early acquisition of advanced Classes”.

Their biggest drawback is that “the strength of their equipment couldn’t keep up with their strength because growth correction equipment must be equipped”.

On the other hand, I have no need to pay attention to the growth correction of my equipment, and there’s plenty of room for me to overturn the difference in ability values in actual battles.

Besides, I still have the transformation in the form of the “trial”.

This isn’t the time to be panicking just yet.

[Y- You did well.]

Covering up the thoughts violently blowing around in my chest, I smiled and congratulated Radd and the others.

That seemed to put their minds at ease as they smiled again.

[R- Right? Well, ummm…… It’s thanks to the Old man that we’ve become this strong. How should I say this…… Ummm, we’re grateful to you. Thanks.]

[Y- Yeah.]

As Radd unusually showed his honest emotions……

[I think so too! If it weren’t for you, we would never have been able to become this strong! Thank you very much!]

Mana bowed her head with sparkling eyes.

With them thanking me so upfront, even I don’t think I should have too many discouraging thoughts.

(Let’s calm down a bit.)

By training Radd and the others, I should have already factored in the fact that they would temporarily, yes, temporarily, become much stronger than I was.

I was a little taken aback and shaken by their Status, but I would have done the same thing even if I had known this was going to happen.

—————Rather, this makes it so that I can finally do what I’ve always wanted to do.

The reason I decided to train Radd’s party was to get access to dungeons that Rex couldn’t conquer with his current strength, and acquire rare items that someone with his strength wouldn’t be able to get his hands on.

In that sense, you can say that things are finally ready.

[It’s time for the real deal and for me to ask you all to lend me your strength.]

This time, saying this with a smile that isn’t filled with bravado, Radd’s party waited for my words, their eyes shining in anticipation instead of displeasure.

(Seriously, these guys are too good for me.)

I felt guilty about taking advantage of their goodwill, but still, I won’t act reserved.

I’m proud to say the considerable returns were prepared for us, and I’m confident that doing this will lead to saving the world.

[————–Starting tomorrow, we will be diving into the .]

Now, it’s time to begin the full-scale attack!

Sorrowful Verteran