Volume 4 Chapter 34 Report, Part I
For the next few days, we were completely exhausted.
I think both Sandra and I overused Siddhi's power. It was our first serious battle, and the tension and fatigue from it left us unable to do anything.
If Ice hadn't taken care of us between training sessions with Alex, we would have starved. Sandra and I were both in bad shape. We really couldn't do anything for days.
As we slowly started to recover, Alex chuckled, "Hey, looks like you can walk now."
"...Barely."
"Kakaka, well, everyone seems to be getting back on their feet. Let's call Philia over and check on things."
Alex said before heading off cheerfully. I followed him with a puzzled look, and for the next few days, Sandra and I were being taken care of by Ice.
A week passed this way. Just as Sandra and I were getting back to our usual selves, Mudi arrived, followed a few hours later by Clay and Toxy with Philia.
"Hey! It's been a while, both of you!"
"Hey, we're back."
"It's been a while~~~! I missed you, Wade!"
The 2 of them looked lively. I had been worried because of the rumors, but they seemed full of energy.
I thought at a glance,
"Both of you have gotten stronger, probably in a chaotic way."
"Is that what you think, Wade-kun?"
"I could tell right away too. Wade, you've probably gotten dangerously strong, right?"
I shrugged.
"Well, not that much."
At that moment, Philia approached me.
"Can we come in for now?"
"Sure, come on in, all 3 of you."
I invited them in. And so, we gathered in the living room.
Our party of 5: me, Ice, Clay, Toxy, and Sandra. Behind us stood our respective masters: Mudi, Philia, and Alex.
Alex spoke up,
"We've gathered here for a reason. Let's have a little competition between masters-disciples to show off our progress."
"Can I go home now, Alex-san?"
"Oh, so that's how it is! Sounds fun! I really wanted to brag about these 2!"
Mudi seemed unenthusiastic, while Philia was eager. It was a strange pairing, but they worked well together.
On the other hand, us disciples were confused since we didn't know the situation. Ice, Clay, and Toxy seemed embarrassed, while Sandra and I lacked motivation as we could see we were going to be teased like Mudi.
"So, let's start with the one who suggested it. Let me brag about Ice. --Show us what you've got, Ice."
"Um, is it that...?"
"Yeah, that."
Alex grins, and Ice says, "Well, it's a bit embarrassing to show it off like this, but..." and she hesitantly took out something from her collar
A gold Sword adventurer's badge.
'----'
We were amazed by the casually presented gold-level adventurer's badge. We had all worked hard to earn ours, but it was still surprising when a comrade we didn't know well showed theirs.
"Prepare to be amazed. In just 1 month, Ice single-handedly wiped out all the bandits around Karditsa. Not a single 1 escaped. They're all either behind bars or gone from this world."
"W-Well, that might sound impressive, but it's not that big of a deal, everyone..."
Ice waved his hands nervously, but Alex wouldn't let him downplay her achievement.
"Hey, what are you saying? Ice, you destroyed a 500-strong bandit group led by a bandit with a quest registered for a gold sword all by yourself. Be proud of yourself."
"Uh, well..."
As Ice shrank in embarrassment, we were in awe.
A gold sword quest was a very high-level quest that only gold-ranked adventurers could take on.
In Karditsa, there was only 1 unique quest that was so cleverly designed that even the military found little incentive to dispatch troops, and even the gold-ranked Sword adventurer did not visit Karditsa for this quest.
What Ice did was achieve the quest without even officially accepting it, then returned with the results. As a result, Ice must have obtained the gold-ranked Sword adventurer certificate.
Ice's accomplishment was defeating a formidable opponent of gold rank and wiping out all their subordinates.
This extraordinary growth from the Ice I knew before was abnormal.
"How... how did you do that? I mean, Ice, you've always been at home."
"Huh...? Oh, Ice-chan? What do you mean by that?"
As I asked a question and Toxy followed up, Ice began to explain,
"Well, you know, in my magic magic, there's a magic to make snowmen, right...?"
"Yeah."
With Toxy's agreement, Ice said with a smile,
"So, you see? While studying military tactics and rune magic with Alex-san at this house, I faced bandits, learned new magic, practiced military tactics, and had fun!"
As Ice joyfully narrated, we pondered and then froze.
Clay asked in a trembling voice,
"So, in other words, you never went to the battlefield but completely wiped out the bandits single-handedly, is that right?"
"Yeah... That's how it turned out, I guess... But for me, it was just studying, so..."
"Ice, that's dangerous."
"Geez, even Sandra-chan...! You're, you're all overreacting."
Although Ice downplayed it as not a big deal, the essence of it was too intense.
In essence, Ice had no fear of death from failures and believed that mistakes could be rectified over time.
The bandits couldn't find Ice and had no choice but to continue fighting an unknown enemy.
"I put rune magic in the fortress to induce a collapse, made all the traps in the fortress target the bandits, froze each 1 in ice in a place where no one could notice. There are many ways to do it, and it was very educational!"
As Ice cheerfully spoke, unaware of our shock, Alex smirked and said,
"Impressive, right? She can summon nearly a hundred snowmen in training now, and by changing their forms, the snowmen can divide roles."
In other words,
"Ice now attacks with snowmen that appear without risk and repetitively commit one-sided slaughter, like a pseudo army. That's Ice now."
"Alex-san, that's an exaggeration."
Ice smiled cheerfully, unaware, while Alex smirked mischievously.
For now, it was undeniable that Ice had acquired the strength worthy of a gold rank.
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