No Need for Perfection
I already had a pretty good idea where the thieves’ hideout was—the objective of Warren’s quest. More precisely, I knew exactly how to find it. The ground was still damp from the recent rain, so their footprints were scattered all over the mountain. All I had to do was follow them. I could have gone alone and hunted the bastards down without involving Warren at all, but there was a reason I’d teamed up with him anyway.
I wouldn’t be able to retrieve the item by myself.
The mountain on the village outskirts was a place where monsters roamed and people rarely ventured, but the only creatures that showed up were kobolds. Compared to the training I’d done on Bingryong Mountain, the difficulty was barely worth mentioning. The thieves didn’t know how to use mana either; they were just ordinary thugs. The problem was their numbers. If I went alone, I’d have to avoid close combat entirely—which meant the only real option was to bombard their cave with Magic Missile from a safe distance and turn the whole thing into a crater.
Obviously that would destroy the item along with them, so the quest would be a bust. That’s why I’d deliberately brought Warren along.
This guy seems a little shaky.
Unlike how uncertain he’d looked before we set out, his current enthusiasm was a good sign. What I hadn’t expected was how much Warren would struggle against the kobolds.
They were weak early-game monsters that collapsed from even a single unstacked Magic Missile. Sure, that was partly because my spell was high level, but still—Warren was an upper-class student. Even if he ranked near the bottom of that group, he was still a proven talent. In terms of raw combat ability he was far stronger than me. Yet he kept swinging his sword in these huge, exaggerated arcs and leaving himself wide open.
It wasn’t that his skill was lacking. When his blade actually connected, it was sharp enough to slice a kobold clean in two without any mana at all. The real issue was that every single swing looked like it was being judged. He was chasing pointless perfection. These kobolds would drop from the slightest graze of his sword, but he was still using a butcher’s knife to kill chickens.
“Ugh…! These things…”
Eventually the problem exploded. Warren, who had pushed ahead, got surrounded by three kobolds at once. I was busy handling the ones charging at me and couldn’t jump in to help him right away.
Deal with these first.
Two left on my side. I began casting Magic Missile while watching them rush in. Two consecutive casts. When they closed to the right range I fired them off one after another.
Bang! Bang!
I’d let them get close on purpose, so both shots landed cleanly. With the immediate threat gone, I quickly checked on Warren again. One kobold had latched onto the arm holding his sword, keeping him from counterattacking. He was desperately trying to block their clubs with the bracer on his left wrist, but he was taking a one-sided beating.
Damn. Too risky at this distance.
My Magic Missile packed decent power thanks to its level, but accuracy was still a problem. If I aimed at the kobolds I might hit Warren instead. Still, I couldn’t just leave him there getting pummeled. I broke into a run and charged straight at them.
Thud!
I slammed my shoulder into the nearest kobold with all the momentum I had. Even with Kael’s frail body, the impact was enough against something that small. I couldn’t avoid falling myself, but I managed to rip both kobolds off Warren. The last one still clinging to his arm—he could handle that much.
Here they come again.
I’d put out the immediate fire, but we weren’t done. The two kobolds I’d knocked down quickly got back up and turned their attention to me instead. With no time to breathe, I prepared Magic Missile from the ground. The distance was much closer than before. I didn’t have time to ready two shots. If I got greedy and tried to hit both at once, the odds of missing everything were too high.
Bang!
I focused everything on landing one solid hit, then immediately rolled sideways. Luckily the second kobold couldn’t kill its momentum and face-planted right where I’d been lying. I brought my staff down hard on the back of its head.
Twitch. Crack! Crack! Thump.
Thankfully I finished it without ever having to trade blows one-on-one. While I was hammering the fallen kobold, Warren dealt with the one still attached to him. Once we confirmed we were both safe, we dropped to the ground without a word.
That really fucking hurts.
The pain in my shoulder hit late. Kael’s body was so weak that even colliding with a much smaller kobold made it creak like it might break. I only have this one healing potion left. It was a waste, but we still had a long way to go. Drinking it now might let me recover before we ran into another group.
“Huff… huff… Sorry.”
While I was drinking the potion, Warren’s exhausted voice came from beside me. He looked completely drained. After being held by one arm and beaten by two kobolds, that was understandable. With his actual skill level he should have been able to handle this many without me. The only real problem was his complete lack of practical know-how.
“Here. Drink.”
I handed him the half-finished healing potion. My shoulder was only lightly bruised; what I’d already drunk was probably enough. Besides, Warren was the one who had to fight up close. As a mage, I was supposed to avoid melee entirely. Even if he was still inexperienced, he needed to stay on the front line. For the sake of our party’s overall combat strength, he had to recover.
“A potion? Something this expensive…”
Warren’s eyes widened as he stared at me. It wasn’t actually that costly, but to someone basically broke it must have looked precious. Honestly it was the same for me right now, but once we cleared the quest properly I’d be able to buy more than ten bottles.
“Just drink it. If it really bothers you, pay me back later.”
“…All right. Thank you.”
After a brief hesitation, Warren—whose body clearly still ached—took the potion and gulped it down.
“Sorry.”
Once he finished, he glanced at me with a bitter smile.
“For what?”
“It feels like I’m not helping at all. Like I’m only getting in your way.”
He wasn’t wrong, so I couldn’t immediately deny it. From the earlier fight, while Warren barely managed one kill I’d had to handle everything else.
“I tried to do my best, but… Maybe I really don’t have any talent.”
An upper-class student saying that in front of an E-grade mana user—the irony was almost painful.
“I really wanted to get that uncle’s item back for him…”
“What about now?”
“Huh?”
“How do you feel right now? Do you not want to get the uncle’s item anymore?”
“No. That’s not it.”
Warren shook his head. From his expression I could clearly see the genuine desire to repay the blacksmith who had helped him. He was just depressed because he thought he was being a burden. That was fine. That much was enough.
If Warren gave up halfway there was nothing I could do—I couldn’t retrieve the item from the thieves alone. But if he still had the will to continue, it was worth pushing forward.
“Then get up.”
“Huh?”
“You can still move, right? Let’s keep going as far as we can.”
Warren lowered his head for a moment and stared at his sword.
“Yeah… you’re right. I can still do this.”
Using his sword like a cane, he pushed himself to his feet. Warren didn’t lack skill or determination. He only lacked experience and the practical instincts that came with it.
“This isn’t a test. You don’t need to do it perfectly.”
“Huh?”
“Those kobolds will fall apart from just a graze of your sword. So stop being so tense and swing however you want.”
“However I want…”
Warren murmured, turning the words over.
“Yeah. I’ll try it your way.”
He raised his sword and took another step forward.
I hadn’t expected a few words to make much difference. But Warren improved far more than I’d anticipated. Instead of preparing perfect strikes, he started focusing on using his sword’s superior reach to simply make contact. As he gained more practical sense, he eventually began pulling his own weight against the kobolds.
It took time and the sky had grown dark, but we finally reached the cave the thieves were using as a temporary base. I hid in the tall grass on a nearby rise and looked down at them.
“They look suspicious, right?”
A few of them were sitting around a bonfire in front of the cave, bragging about how valuable the goods they’d stolen this time seemed to be.
“Yeah. I think that’s them.”
Warren studied the group and quietly agreed. We were only one step away from completing our goal.